Umm, Lets Just Say its a Work in Progress
by Rya2
Summary: Dri, a murdering thief.. with a past with the single obsession of coming back and tormenting her every time she uses strange powers. And then there's Nic.... Soon to be titled ShadowCat
1. Prologue

Heyyy. Guess what? I've had this story line kickin around in my puny mind for a while, so I decided to post it. who cares if it don't have all the pretty fonts, I'll fix it at school. Oh, and I need a guy's name. It hasta be cool, but not like Joe or Bob or nuthin. so, I guess that means, if you have any ideas, review and tells me. Trust me, I'm all ears. As usual, and corrections, flames *blah, blah, blah* feel free to e-mail/review. NOW on with the show! 

~* Rya*~  
  


**Re-edited 12/16/03, Fixin formats and such. Warning: extreme violence in this chapter.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Prologue  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
            Walking down the street. That's what I'd been doing when Alex found me and said Kara had been attacked. He told me that she had been beaten and knifed, that he couldn't stop the bleeding. "Hurry." He told me. I never ran so fast in my life. I must have started up around Seventy-second street and made it all the way to Twelfth in a mere half an hour. That's about, oh, three miles. If there were any streets, I crossed without even looking, ignoring all the honking cars. 

            I practically galloped up the rusting fire escape steps, alone because Alex hadn't been able to keep up. I opened the rotting door so fast I tore it off its hinges. And there was Kara, laying in a pool of crimson blood, the puddle still visibly spreading. I knelt down in her blood, staring into brown eyes slowing losing their focus in this world. Her normally lightly tan skin was now closer in coloration to the pure white of untainted snow as it fell from the sky. 

            She was muttering to herself, saying something about her home, that she wanted to go home. And rings. She kept saying "The ring, the ring will save her." Obviously gone delusional from loss of blood. I'd seen it before, just not in anyone as close to me as Kara was. Even my brother Alex wasn't that close to me. No one was. "Take my ring, Dri, keep it." Kara suddenly came out of her imaginary world. And then she began convulsing, her body shaking so hard she rolled over and I could clearly see the stab wounds. Too many for anyone, even a surgeon, to kiss it and make it all better now. Frankly, I was surprised she'd managed to live this long. Most people don't live long after being stabbed fourteen times in the back. But Kara lived through rape, beating, and fourteen stab wounds for at least two hours. Just to tell me to take her ring. She died, not even two minutes later. 

            I took her ring from her right hand. It was too big for my long fingers, so I put it on a chain I nicked from a street vendor a couple days later. Alex and I had to bury her, right next to the tree she was forever sitting in. She said it was shaped like one from her home. I would generally roll my eyes and set out to take some prissy snot's purse. I wish I hadn't done that. Instead, I should have asked what her family was like, or why she was on the streets like me and Alex.  
  
            That's what I kept doing, making a living by thieving. Until Hans and his foreign cronies declared a gang war in the slums, that is. No one was safe, not even me and Alex. Fights and blood were seen day and night. Even the bravest cops dared not come into the block that had been given the name Fighter's Land. Corny, but the name fit us perfectly. One night after I'd nearly been caught in the apartment I'd decided to raid, yet another huge battle began. Alex had gone out, so I was left in our apartment with only the rats and cockroaches for company. 

            Our place was pretty nice, considering it was once a condemned apartment building. Ha. Like anyone dared to tear it down. Last time an inspector came to look at this place, he'd been knifed. It wasn't my fault he was standing where I'd been aiming. Alex said I should be more careful not too attract so much attention, but I merely shrugged off his advice. Then the people in the city started calling who ever was the mysterious thief who defended an old and decrepit building Shadow Cat. Har, har, har. Like I'm some X-woman. Yeah, right. That was seven years ago, when I was only ten. Alex had just turned thirteen, but we both new I was the one who looked out for us.  
  
            I got a job, walking some guy's dog. Of course, he thought I was some innocent little girl trying to earn money to buy a doll. I have never felt any want for a doll, much less owned on. Oh, well. I certainly looked the little girl part back then. Big green eyes that were rimmed with lashes everyone insisted on informing me were "very long". I even wore a dress I'd stolen, and put ribbons in my hair. But as soon as I picked up the dog I'd go a block and take the dress off, the ribbons would come out. Then I was a little girl in shorts and a plain blue shirt. No one knew I carried a knife, even then, and was the reason many people's wallets were no longer where they had put them when they got home. The little girl act was the perfect cover for a thief.  
  
            That's how I first met Kara. She was two years older than me but looked to be the opposite. And she had a very pretty knife that I thought I'd nick. Didn't know that she knew how to use that thing like it was another part of her. Now I have a very pretty scar on the top of my shoulder where she sliced the skin. She thought she'd teach me a lesson, but actually I just became her friend. Don't ask me how. I just did. We stayed best friends until the day she died. She even lived with me and Alex, and later those two became involved. She was pregnant with his kid when she was murdered.   
  
            That night I was originally talking about? The one with the big fight? That's when Han's decided to try a number on me. He and his boys stormed our empty building, searching for me. I guess they thought I was pretty, and wanted to get me in bed with them. Hmmph. Like I'd touch Hans or any of his gang with a ten foot pole. Instead, they had to settle for a knife in the thigh, or one in the arm. One guy, whose brains apparently were on vacation even got free castration. Well, now he knows what "Hell NO!" means. I wasn't aiming to kill them, yet, just hurt them enough to make 'em go away. Didn't work. Hans and two others cornered me. One was bleeding from a gash across his chest and Hans would in time have a new scar on his ugly face.   
  
  
            They grabbed my arms and Hans hissed like a viper. "Gotcha, little bitch. Now I'll do you like I did your friend last month." 

            Naturally, I got pissed. So, in the middle of my screaming at him as he groped my chest and started slobbering over my neck, I brought my knee up right into his very un-impressing manhood. He went white and his eyes started to water as small whining noises came from his throat. That second of surprise was all I needed to yank myself free from the grasp of the other two. I rammed my elbow into the guy on my right as hard as I could and simultaneously punched the other in the temple. Both went down, one unconscious and the other with a cracked rib or two. 

            I started running and my hand closed around the ring Kara gave me. I ran right through three others and down the stairs into the night before I collided with Alex, running to the rescue. We both fell, and the sound of bullets being fired ripped into the air. Alex jerked when one punched into his chest before he became as still as the nonliving pavement beneath him. Alex too had gone from my life. 

            My world shattered and I slowly stood. I took no notice of the tears on my face, but shouted into the air for Hans to kill me. I'd lost all wish to live. My fingers were running themselves around the ring as tears began treading their way down my face A silhouette became visible in the still lit room I had just fled from. One arm was raised, holding a small gun. The ache of my broken heart was worse than the thought of death. The figure with the gun fired, I felt pain like no other in my stomach and in surprise my finger slipped into Kara's ring just before I passed out. 

**There we goes, re-edited. 


	2. Where Am I?

**Re-edited 12/16/03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Chapter 1- Where am I??  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  


            I groaned as light seeped through my closed eyes and rolled onto my stomach. Big mistake. Fire burned in my abdomen like it believed it alone had to heat my whole body. Grimacing, I rolled back to my former position without yet opening my eyes and pulled the sheets over my head. Sheets?!! What the heck? My eyes snapped open as I flung the coverings away from me like they were poisonous cobras. 

            Taking in deep breaths I surveyed the elegantly furnished room, wondering if I was dreaming. I tried to sit, but the pain in my side was testimony to the fact that whatever this was, it was no dream. Slowly I tried again, and the gradual increase of pain was more bearable than the sharp staccato it had been on my first attempt. Gingerly I placed my feet on the wooden floor and painstakingly crossed the room to an open balcony. 

            Chairs were placed near the iron wrought railing and only total self-control kept me from completely collapsing as I lowered myself into the nearest one. Gazing about, even I had to admit the land was peaceful with an almost sleepy atmosphere. Leaves gently floated in a gentle breeze to rest upon the light brown earth and somewhere close by a bird caroled merrily. I did not need to see a mirror to know that my face scrunched in pain, both physical and emotional. Looking down at my hands I noticed for the first time I was not in my blood stained jeans and combat boots, but a white lacy nightdress. A dress. Me. In a dress. The very thought made me want to gag. That and the lace. Lace for crying out loud! What did they think I was, some wimpy girl? A sudden thought seized my mind and my hands flew to my neck. I sighed when I found the ring still hung on the chain around my neck. I decided to sit and watch the places around me. I hoped by observing that I would be able to figure out where the hell I was.   
  


             I must have been on an upper-story looking into some kind of courtyard because people scurried here and there, busy despite the dreamlike atmosphere. Most were blonde with only a few brunettes. I grinned despite my heartache. My tan skin and midnight black hair were sure to stick out like a refined millionaire in Fighter's Block. I just love sticking out. I considered cutting my hair with a knife just to appear even more out of the ordinary, especially since all those I could see had their hair at least shoulder length and left mostly down. My own raven colored hair went down to my waist. But the fact that I loved the silky feeling of it against my face and I had no more knives left prevented me from doing so. Instead I began twisting strands into an endless inky river of minuscule braids of varying lengths.   
  


            Finally after about an hour or so of watching those below come and go* and braiding my hair, some brilliant blonde person looked up, saw me and pointed out the apparent anomaly of a girl with black hair sitting out on the deck with her pajamas on to another person with, for once, light brown hair. Both the blonde and the light brown heads disappeared into a sheltered walkway on the opposite side of the courtyard. Fifteen minutes later I heard a knock on the door, which I ignored. I wanted to be let alone, but after a minute of low murmuring the door was unlocked with minimal jingling of keys and nearly inaudible footsteps made their way to where I had been sitting for nearly an hour and a half. I wished that whoever it was would just leave me alone.  
  
            Unfortunately, the guy with brown hair came onto the deck or whatever I was on and sat down on one of the many chairs. Following him was a blonde man with dark brown eyes. Both wore sleeveless cloaks over loose shirts with full long sleeves and tights. Well actually, they were breeches, but they looked kinda like tights. Pale skin was apparently the norm wherever I was, so I would never fit in, in that respect. I most certainly did not have the pointed ears these two guys sported. I kept myself from staring by glowering at the two who had so rudely intruded my thoughts, to which only the blonde reacted with surprise.   
  
            "Lady, I see you carry much sorrow within you, young as you are. Your physical wound is healing, but I can not say so much for your spirit. It has lost much vitality and will, I sense that much." stated the man with light brown hair. I simply shot him a look that would have made even Hans run like a whipped dog with its tail between its legs. In truth, I was startled. I would be willing to swear that they were speaking anything except English, and yet I understood them perfectly. It was as if I was merely using a part of my mind that had sat idle for many years before now.   
  
            Surprisingly enough, it was Blondie who responded to my glaring. However, it was not with anger as I had hoped, but with temper carefully checked and his voice sounding like he was narrating some fairy tale. "Lady, You would show Lord Elrond Half-Elven more respect if you knew if it weren't for him you would be dead at this moment. It is only out of his powers that you are healed from a wound that we have never seen the likes of before. It is his house that you are now sheltered in, and at his commands you are cared for and clothed."  
  
            "What if I had not wanted to live? What if this wound that you have never seen the likes of was self inflicted. In fact, I was thinking of throwing my self over this ugly rail and making a most lovely addition to the ground below." I bluffed, my voice deceptively innocent. "What gives you the right to take my things from me and talk to me as if I am but a child. You have not even given the your name, much less the name of the place I am, for now it seems, a resident of." I succeeded in startling both, but the one called Elrond concealed his surprise better. Much better. I grinned, pulling my lips back to reveal my teeth.   
  
            " I apologize, Lady. My companion for the time is known as Yurin Hugluin and it is obvious I have yet to completely train him in the art of diplomacy." At this I let out a snort of agreement, which Elrond wisely ignored and continued on as I looked into his eyes. "You were found in the woods nearly ten days ago by my scouts. We have been waiting for the arrival of others, but you were all they found. You were carried here, to Rivendell, and here you have stayed since. I am, as Yurin stated, Lord Elrond, and this is my domain. I will not however, demand that you tell us your story yet. I see you still feel pain in your side. I shall fix that as best I can but you shall always bear a scar. I would, however, ask you your name and why it is you were in our woods unbidden." 

            He leaned closer to me and his eyes focused on the bandages covering the spot where I had been shot and began to chant softly. After a small amount of time the pain had faded completely from my body and Elrond opened his eyes again.  
  
            A sudden thought made me want to smack myself: Kara, despite being on the streets, had been a voracious reader. She had even taught Alex and myself to read. I never knew where she got the books as she denied stealing them. But the point is, she had this one trilogy or something, and she used to spend hours reading them or sometimes just talking to me about them. I never listened much. Hearing about people chasing some midget with a big, bad ring just wasn't my thing. But the thing is she was always talking about Elves and had gone through and recited page after page on Elves. I especially knew about some guy named Legolas Greenleaf, as he was Kara's favorite. Tears began to well up in my eyes and I quickly looked down and let my thoughts linger in my past for a moment longer. An idea began to run through my mind.   
  
            After a few minutes of silence had passed I looked up with clear eyes and kept all emotion from my voice as I spoke directly to Elrond, ignoring Yurin, "You are an Elf." Elrond gave a deep nod of agreement while Yurin gave me a look that plainly said I must have been insane if I hadn't known that yet. A nasty glare was all Yurin received for his unspoken insult. Taking a shaky breath I muttered a few curses before I asked "And this is not Earth, is it?" 

            Elrond slowly shook his head with a small look of puzzlement in his eyes. Eyes that had seen thousands of years, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years of pain and sorrow, loyalty and betrayal, happiness and contentment. Lines around his face showed that new worries were pressing themselves heavily against this wise ruler.  
  
            I was remembering more and more of what Kara had told me about her books as new concepts presented themselves. Sighing I let my body go limp into the back of the chair I was still sitting in. "I am called Dri. Nothing more and nothing less. That means no more 'Lady'. And I don't care what you think but there will be no one calling me 'Young' or 'Dear' or something equally disgusting. If they do," pausing, I felt a wicked smile turn the corners of my lips up, " I am not to be held responsible for any injuries they sustain. As for my wound, suffice it to say I was attacked by a piece of scum called Hans. It tried to rape me, but I escaped. It or one of Its minions shot me with a weapon never seen in your world. Suffice it to say you saved a life I think you will in time come to regret saving. I am a thief, a murdering, and downright rude and uncouth little girl in your eyes. If you please, Elrond, I'd like my weapons back and some black cloth and sewing material. Also, I'll take my old clothes back."  
  
            "All your things are in the chest at the foot of your bed. I will arrange for everything else to be taken here as you wish, Dri. If you have need of anything else, simply ask and I will do my best to see that you receive it."  
  
            "What I need is to go home." I muttered under my breath.   
  
            "And just where is your home?" Yurin asked, his gray eyes seeming curious instead of appearing haughty.  
  
            "Nowhere around here, I assure you." I said dryly. Anticipating his next question I spoke before Yurin, "And I personally know no one in your world. All my family has either deserted me or died."  
  
            "Then it is as I feared, you are not from any time or place in Middle Earth." Elrond spoke with an emotion I could not name but only describe as sorrowful resignation.   
  
            I nodded and with a glance at Yurin, both he and Elrond stood up and politely took their leave of me. Elrond told me that if I was feeling up to it there was to be a banquet tonight. I snorted again and rolled my eyes and followed them as they exited the balcony and they left the room. Looking from my bed to the balcony, I opened the chest and pulled out my boots and put them on. Walking slowly, I yanked off a comforter and returned to the balcony. Back in Fighter's Block it had already snowed three times. Here the air was cool with the promise of cool weather returning to the land; almost fall. I wrapped myself into a cocoon of white comforter and curled up on the bench positioned in a corner of the balcony. I told myself I would only close my eyes, but I was tired and followed my memories into a sleep of dreams that were memories from my past.  
  
**************************************************************  
*Hey! That rhymes!!! 

** Re-edited 12/16/03: Yeah. Actually, there will be no updates to Amaya. Because I intend to take that fic off, and it got moved to Fiction Press and, well, I'm a lazy ass. And, frankly, nothing more to Hell On Middle Earth, Either. Because Z went to another school and frankly its damn hard when we work and do other after school activities.  
~*Rya*~ 


	3. Another

**Re-edited 12/16/03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Chapter 2- Another  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I woke up when it was dark, rested but not anymore at ease with the fact that I had been transported to a world that, to my knowledge at least, had previously only existed in books. And now I was stuck, without any idea as to how or when or why I was where I was. Scrunching up my face, I thought hard and the last thing I could remember was asking for Hans to kill me, the firing of the gun and the following pain.   
  
As I stood up the white lacy gown swirling around my feet as a soft breeze blew around me which caused me to shiver, despite the comforter covering my shoulders.. Walking into my room, I noticed how it had candles glowing in the corners and on the dresser table there was a neat pile of black fabric next to scissors, thread, and needles. Ignoring them for a few moments I went over and opened the trunk and took out my ripped and bloodstained clothes. When I saw the neat hole in the left side of my shirt I whistled in spite of my self: The place where the bullet passed through my clothes was in the left side but far enough to the side for me to know that a scar would be the only permanent damage to my body, thanks to Elrond's handiwork. Carefully I laid out the clothes on the floor and smoothed them out as best I could. I went back over the dresser and gathered to various supplies up and set them on the floor next to my outspread clothes. Five minutes of cutting and pinning later, I had new clothes ready to be sewn. All I had done was cut along the edges of my old things, and pinned them in place.  
  
While trying to thread the needle I noticed how dark it was where I was sitting and solved the problem of seeing where I was sewing by clustering candles around the spot on the floor where I was working. Satisfied with the lighting, I plopped back down and got to work on sewing some respectable clothes. I don't know how long I spent working, but when I had tied the last knot many of the candles were flickering low in pools of wax that had spread across the floor and several had gone out. Stretching, I set down the needle and my new pair of pants and considered which was more urgent, my need for a bathroom, food or sleep. My bladder won out, and after stumbling out of my room, I began searching the halls for a friendly person, er, Elf, to tell me where the dang restrooms were. Approximately twenty sleepy minutes later I exited what was the bathroom and went in search of food, my dumb nightgown swirling in the most annoying way it could possibly swirl behind me. I stumbled into what looked like a small kitchen, and upon spying a bowl of fruit I nearly inhaled three yellow apples. Munching on the fourth, I got up and found meat, cheeses, and bread and one-handedly made myself a sandwich, which was next to enter my ravaging stomach. Appetite nearly diminished, I snagged a few more apples and staggering from intense weariness, fell into my bed and slept.  
  


  
~*~

  
The songs from twittering birds outside thrust their way past the dark curtain of sleep that had fallen on me. My eyelids fought the heaviness of sleep and fluttered open to gaze around at the room. Old clothes were lying in a discarded heap next to the folded ones I had created last night. Slowly I slipped from underneath a cover and tiptoed over the floor to my new things. Five minutes later I emerged from behind a screen that hid where I changed from the rest of my spacious and airy room. Seeing no mirror, I ignored the brush and hoped my hair did not feel as bush-like as it felt, and walked out my door. With no real goal or purpose, I took to wandering the hallways and attempting to fix the places I saw in my mind. As a thief and street kid, I also noticed things that looked to be of value, such as the numerous paintings adorning the wall or elaborately carved tables with vases full of picturesque flowers.   
  
The few Elves I met only nodded politely in passing and glanced at my attire, which was, I suppose, rather odd to a people who wore long pants and fluffy shirts or full length dresses in pastel colors. My clothes were entirely black, and my shirt long sleeved and form fitting, modestly low cut and ended just below my breasts, leaving my bandaged side and tan stomach free for all to see. The sleeves were as tight as a second layer of skin, outlining my decently muscled biceps. My pants were low cut and tight at the hips, but not uncomfortably so. The legs were comfortably loose, close to baggy but not quite. Each leg had two pockets sewn in, one on the thigh and another on the calf. Then there were my clunky combat boots. My boots were probably my favorite things I had ever stolen, but maybe because I stole them from some Army dude while he was in another room. The guy should learn not to leave his window open in such a crime-filled city. You never know when that Shadow Cat person will rip you off.   
  
If I ever thought, I would never stand out any more, I was dead wrong. Having a pierced belly button was probably something of a freak show qualifier to the Elves, as none so far had any piercings whatsoever. My ring was rather pretty, if bordering dangerously close to girly for me: a pale blue crystal star swinging free on a silver chain held in by a tear shaped diamond. My ears were pierced, one medium stud in my right and one medium and small stud in my left with the cartilage bearing a silver ball so tiny most people never even knew it was there. Kara's ring was hidden just inside my shirt but the sparkling chain was clearly visible.  
  
After I opened a few doors and explored the different rooms, but found nothing of interest. Finally after a few hours of exploring, my stomach began to audibly speak in rumbling growls. So, in order to appease my demanding appetite, I searched until I found my way back to the now-bustling kitchen. There I snatched a few things and left unnoticed, one of my many talents that made me an excellent thief. 

Walking and munching along, I found my way into a vast room. There was absolutely nothing unusual about the fact that it was probably at least the size of a football field. Or two. No, the jaw dropper was the fact that this gigantic room was filled with rows upon rows of books, and old scrolls, and yellowing parchments. I could see three fireplaces merrily cackling away to ward off cold and woven rugs covering the floor. I walked down one, my booted feet sinking into the thick rugs and my fingertips trailed along the spines of innumerable books. Turning the corner I found several hardwood desks elaborately carved and some overstuffed and comfortable looking chairs.   
  
My eyebrows shot up a mile at my last thought. They appeared to be very comfy, judging from the drool accumulating on a sleeping man's tunic, as they were called. I grinned in spite of myself, the guy sprawled in the chair was pretty damn hot. Shocks of dark brown hair fell into the sleeper's closed eyes. His slightly flaring nose added character and the full lips were serenely smiling. A fist dug into one cheek and smudged with the same ink visible on his other hand. There is no sure way to tell on a slouching figure, but he seemed tall and muscular, but not overly so. He looked like a lean fighter, one with a good reach with a knife. Papers with small script were lying on his lap, and a few had spilled over onto the chair and floor. A pot of liquid ink and, believe or not, quill were on the floor next the papers. It looked as if Sleeping Beauty had decided to write before taking his beauty nap. I snorted, but a smile crossed my face nonetheless. I tiptoed over next to him, leaned over and peered into his peaceful face. He seemed so content, sprawling across the chair. A shadow began to linger in the corner of my mind: Kara was always happy. I shook my head to clear away these unhappy memories and stalked behind the sleeping persons chair to peer over his shoulder to read what he had written.   
  
I got about two sentences in before I started to tremble uncontrollably. This person, this man had not written in Elvish, or any language I should not know but somehow do. No, for all the papers in what I am assuming was his handwriting, were in plain English. The writings were like a diary of sorts, saying he was here, in a fantasy land and yet did not know how. I turned my back and took a few steps away from the man. My breathing became shallow and slow, like it always did when I become upset.   
  
My curiosity got the better of me and I turned quickly around and stealthily slipped the papers from his lap. The man merely moaned and shifted ever so slightly, never waking. I considered that quite a feat, considering if he had moved a fraction more he would have been touching me. My breath had been so close to his face it had gently blown the hair on his forehead. Mission accomplished, I gathered up the other papers at his feet and took them with me to a seat a few chairs over. I wanted to be close enough to keep an eye on Sleeping Beauty, but stay far enough away to escape quickly should he rouse unexpectedly. Then I immersed my self into his tale of how he got to Rivendell.   
  
Approximately half an hour later, I looked up, finished with his story. It seems he had been walking to a party when a car jumped the curb and nearly ran him down. He remembered a dull ache and blinding lightning in a place so dark it was as if the blackness would overwhelm even the lightning bolts. And then he was staring up into the face of Elrond. Apparently, this man read the same stuff as Kara. I smirked and winced at the same time because of my thought. 

He then went on to describe how he, like me, had spent his time awake exploring his surroundings. This guy, unlike me, knew of this place and had read of it in books. Apparently they were his most valued possessions, the way he carried on about how the Elves were just as he imagined, or he thought the surroundings were poorly described in the book compared to the real thing. Only this person did not have my ability to understand and speak any language spoken to me. He had picked up a little of a language called Sindaren, but that was all. He had accidentally told a young Elf woman something in Sindaren that was rather offending, only he thought he was telling her the flowers in the garden were nearly as lovely as she. I laughed silently at his error. He had left out an 'e' sound in the beginning of his sentence, and therefore changed it completely. 

I glanced up to look at the person who had made such a terrible mistake only to find sleepy blue eyes gazing into my own alert green ones. I stifled my gasp and swiftly put the last page on top of the others and practically ran out of the room, mentally berating myself and yet   unsure of why I was running.

**Re-edited 12/16/03: Yeah. Redid this one, too. 


	4. Discoveries

**Re-edited 12/16/03

~~~~~~~

Discoveries

~~~~~~~  
  
When I was clear of the room full of books, I broke into a sprint and ran as far away as I could in ten minutes. Meaning when I finally slowed down, I was nearly a mile and a half away from where I had started. While running I had taken no notice of where I was running or how the number of people I was forced to dodge declined rapidly into nonexistence. 

Looking around at the little clearing I found myself, I felt tears slowly begin to prick my eyes. I did not know where they came from or why, but they continued to slowly trace their way down my cheeks as I tried to catch my breath. Willing with all my heart and soul, I gradually stopped my childish crying and began to meander around the edges of the clearing with the golden sun smiling from above. Judging from the number of initials engraved inside of hearts into the bark of the trees I figured it was probably some sort of lover's haunt. Smiling a little as I began to read the poetic verses and tributes to loved ones.  
  
I had nearly finished my circuit of the meadow area when I read a haunting poem written in Elvish. The verses about a love the writer was waiting to find was not nearly as chilling as the signature and the shape of the tree in was chiseled into. The signature was of no other than a Karalin Inthoyun. I was shaking so hard I collapsed against the tree. I traced the grooves of the poem with my fingers and began sobbing uncontrollably, despite how much I tried to stop. The surname of my dead friend Kara was the same as the writers, Inthoyun, and in my world there was a tree exactly like the one I was now holding on to as if it were my lifeline.   
  
Then I began screaming towards the sky, at first in Elvish but I must have switched into English somewhere along the way. "WHY?? Why did you take them from me? You call yourself a god, but you could not save your purest child !! She never killed any one, and now I find she was in this world first. SHE was my only friend!! She knew me better than I have ever, You HEAR THAT? EVER known myself. She was the sister I never had. We were a family! Alex, her and me! AND YOU LET THEM DIE!! They had never done anything to deserve to die the way they did. NEVER! You are no GOD, but a MONSTER worthy of damnation! WHY do you torment me? Was it something I have done? Something I did not say? WHY did they have to die? Why did I not die in their place? WHY? WHY?? TELL ME!!" 

Pounding on the tree where Kara had once carved her exquisite poem my fists began to bloody the poem. Her poem. And still I kept ranting at the heavens for an answer that would never come. Instead I screamed out my rage, sorrow, frustration, helplessness even beyond the hour I lost my powers of coherent speech. In a hoarse voice I kept demanding why they had died, why I still lived, why had I not been killed instead, why them? "Why, why, WHY, WHY????!!" I demanded of the setting sun as the air around me began to take on a cold edge and I was wearied past the ability to move. Even when I could no longer speak, I stared into the moon's face and mentally howled my previously pent up emotions. Finally I wore myself into a tormented sleep where all I dreamed about were happy memories of the three of us together.  
  


  
~*~  
  


  
A year and a half had passed from that day until I made another discovery: I could change my body as I wished. If I wanted a fiery butterfly to be on my ankle, it was there after a few moments of thought. One day I wished to be free of my pains and I sprouted wings and was able to soar above the highest mountain. There was even a time I wished to look as the Elves around me did, and scared the bejeezus out of Elrond when he saw the taller, paler version of myself. Who had pointed ears. 

Some nights, when I was particularly lonely and missed Alex and Kara, or rather, Karalin, I would transform myself into a golden retriever and race the wolves through the forests until dawn broke. Other times I would disappear and go on adventures, traveling among the Elves and to the far corners of their world known as Middle Earth.

Few Elves besides Elrond knew of my powers and none knew I mourned. However, all Elves knew that if they were suddenly missing an interesting trinket, it was mostly likely to be found in my hands. Most were understanding, only a few took my thieving curiosity for some dark evil. Those people generally had the least interesting items carried on their persons, so I seldom raided their pockets. Occasionally I would see Sleeping Beauty coming out of the Library Room, as the place where I originally found him was called (You can see the Elvish are very creative with their room-naming), or practicing his fighting skills in one of the many courtyards with other Elves. On the latter of the occasions, I would be tempted to go down and fight him myself, but decided to observe before I efficiently scared him.   
  
Two more uneventful winters passed. They were generally dull and uninteresting. Most often I was to be found 'borrowing' a trinket or two, reading books in a remote corner of the Library Room, or working on my own fighting skills. By this time I had quite the odd collection of odd Elvish knickknacks, bruises from trouncing or being trounced by other fighters, and nearly a third of the through with my twenty-seventh bookcase. 

In fact, it was when I was reading another massive volume in my favorite niche in the Library Room when Sleeping Beauty decided to pick a fight with yours truly. Well, maybe he didn't quite pick a fight but he sure got the ass whooping his ego was just begging for. It's not my problem he didn't listen to me. Well, maybe it is. But anyways, he just sorta saunters up to me, interrupting this extremely (cough, right, cough) interesting tome about this big bad ring that some evil guy named Sauron or something made so he could take over the world. 

Like I , and every other person, have nneeevvvvverrrrr heard of the bad guy ever trying to, oh, take over the world. Nope, totally original concept, world domination is. 

But there he is, trying to figure out which book I had in my hands. It turns out, it was the exact book I had found in a room a few days before. So, I took it and decided to return it for the previous borrower, after I read it, that is. And Sleeping Beauty demands I 'Return that book back to its rightful reader'. Rrigghhhhhtt. So naturally, I politely, a first for me, refused and, stood up, and began to walk away. 

Did he get the point? Oh, nooo. He had to follow me twittering on about he was researching something about a powerful object, one that would, in fewer words than he said, rain doom down upon our poor, unsuspecting heads. Okay, maybe that was more words, but who cares? The point is still the same: same nameless guy from my world was following me around demanding that I return the book I stole from him, which I was NOT about to do. 

So while he was trying to make me stop in Elvish, he made the major mistake of cursing me in English. His exact words were, "Damn it, bitch, knock the fuck off!" And this being me, Dri, I was not about to stand for that, even if it would blow my completely obvious cover of being from around here, turned around and began cussing him out. In Sindaren and any other language he had even the remotest chance of actually understanding me. Including English. 

Here I was, calling Sleeping Beauty an impolite asshole in fifty four languages when I finally get to English. His blue eyes went wider than the biggest grapes I have ever imagined, let alone seen when he heard his native language being used to totally diss him. And then all the idiot could say was " Umm, may I please have the book you have in your hands?" At which point I had run out of verbal steam. 

So I slapped him. Now, I have a very pretty ring of an arrow wrapping itself around my finger, and it was as sharp as a real arrow head. It caught him just below the jaw line and a few drops of blood seeped out. I was inwardly ashamed at myself, but was rather cranky because I had turned into a bear the day before. I muttered a warning about that being just a sample of what he would get if he ever got near me again and stalked off.   
  
I went to my room, opened a drawer and placed the book in it. Then I went over to my chest and brought out three knives, two of which went around a belt at my waist and the third into my combat books. I started to grin like a maniac. The dude was obviously blind, 'cuz if he couldn't tell the boots weren't from Middle Earth, he was most certainly a few logs short of a roaring fire. 

Feeling like a quick flight, I walked onto my balcony and stood on the railing. I turned around and swung myself on top of the roof and started running along the peak of it. When I was close enough to the center of the roof I knelt down and thought about becoming a peregrine falcon. A few minute later I was off and free of earthly troubles. As I soared over the grounds I noticed a familiar head. Plop. Well, lets just say Sleeping Beauty has a few gray hairs now. Chuckling, I took off into the setting sun, happy and carefree. 

**Re-edited 12/16/03: Probably the last one of the day. Finals tomorrow. Damn them. 


	5. Transformation from the Past

First off, I'd like to give thanks to all the people who are inclined to hit the very beautiful blue button down below: they make my day better. They would be, Majik aka Daisy, ElFgIrL, naheka and Joe the Nazgul, Please forgive any incorrect names ( Rivendale ect..) or time differences cuz I hafta pay to get the books. But, Naheka is now beta reading for me, so that should all end now. Also, I think I'm going to combine book & movie cuz there are parts I like and dislike in both. So, moving on....   
***********************************************************************************  
  
Soaring above even the clouds is the biggest high I have ever gotten. Not even pulling off a very expensive heist gives me this much of a rush. Twisting, turning being buffeted by the wind as it races past my beak has never been experienced by any other human, only me. There are simply not enough words to describe the joy, the pure fun in performing acrobatic feats mid-air.   
  
When I was far enough away from Rivendell and near the mountains I changed form once again. Only this time it was into a beautiful creature: a snow white dragon. My crystalline wings that looked like pieces of stained glass framed by the purest of pearls belied the power held within them. I was a lithe creature born of fire and wind, beautiful yet deadly. My razor sharp claws were as long as a fully grown Elf and looked like silver icicles. I now possessed head shaped like the head of a spear, my eyes still an odd green color but now tinted with flecks of white. Iron hard scales covered my entire body with no opening for any weapon to slip past.  
  
Down below I saw the landscape pass swiftly as my enormous wings beat powerfully. I passed several villages, but no one looked up and noticed anything out of the ordinary on a windy day. I can only assume that I must have looked like a slightly odd cloud, as I have never read in the Library Room of any pure white dragons.  
  
Soaring over a lake I could not resist so let loose a stream of fire and flew straight through it. The searing sensation that would have killed any mere human only felt like a comfortable warmth caressing my scales. The reflection of such a stunt was beautiful as I watched myself zoom through a fiery cloud and emerge untouched on the other side as the fire died behind my tale. The sun set and I transformed my coloration into that of the sky around me. My scales were like the pebbly skin of a chameleon as I made stars occasionally race across my belly for any stargazers below.   
  
Hours had passed since I first began to return and fatigue began to dance lightly across my eyes. I began seeing things, first glimpses of things that I thought were not there, then the visions progressed into random scenes from my life. Such as when my father shot my mother before he turned the gun on himself. The scene I had nearly managed to erase from my mind played itself out before my eyes, true to memory. My father, drunk as usual, becoming angry at my mother who, also as usual, was rolling up a piece of paper to snort another drug. I don't remember what she was on that time, but I remember cringing with Alex behind the worn couch as my father stormed around the rooms. I remember him throwing the bottle of liquor across the room and the sound of it shattering against the wall above my mother's head. The explosion of the gun going off once, and then twice. And my parents were dead, leaving eight year old Dri and eleven year old Alex to fight the harsh world around them alone.   
  
Alex grew up in the air before me, becoming more than just a little boy, but a man trying to keep three people alive. I saw us together in the snow walking away from a foster home where we were not understood and the drunk man echoed too much of our family. And him presenting me with a small gift for my sixteenth birthday he swore he had earned with honest money. A simple ceremony in which Alex took Kara as his bride, and they swore to honor and love no one else all the days of their lives. Then Kara's face filled the air before, beside, above, below me. Everywhere I turned I saw her face. Laughing, crying, serious, content, worried, she was everywhere I looked.   
  
The ground swerved and jumped below me as I made frantic dives to escape this visionary hell, but I did not notice. The only sensation I felt was the trickle of a large tear down my softening scales and the coldness of the night air. I startled myself out the intensity of the ongoing hallucinations when a ferocious roar turned into pitiful screaming. I looked around searching for the source and realized my scales were no longer white but the tanned color of my own skin. Claws meant for ripping and tearing were now replaced with fragile human nails. Frantically I beat my wings that were slowly returning back into arms, only managing to slow my descent. Seconds later I was still screaming as I skimmed rooftops and my hands returned completely natural state. My wings were nearly gone. I had nearly stalled when my feet skipped off the ledge of the roof and I returned with unfortunate timing back into my purely human form.   
  
As I fell, crying my terror out for all to hear me, the hallucinations that had been plaguing me for nearly an hour disappeared as if nonexistent winds pursued unrelentlessly, dissolving my visions of Kara and Alex. A sickening crunch and a wave of nausea and pain that swept through my body starting with my leg told me I would not be walking for a very long time.   
  
**************************************************************************************************  
  
  
The rolling of distant thunder led me to place the ancient scroll I had been reading carefully on a small table and stroll out onto the balcony. I must admit I always was a sucker for a good storm. But only a few wisps dared to mar the otherwise cloud free night. Puzzled, I only shook my head and returned to my scroll and ignored the boisterous growing of a storm that was not there.  
  
I managed a few sections before the 'thunder' became increasingly noisier until it seemed to be right on top of me. Soft but frantic padding of Elvish feet raced up and down the corridors outside my room. My light breathing and the growling air outside were the only other sounds accompanying the patter of urgent Elves. Then the noise I had mistaken for thunder became known to me as I heard several cries of 'Dragon' being called from outside my window. I scurried into the corridor, carelessly abandoning my reading to the chair I no longer occupied.   
  
Once in the corridor, I scrambled to follow a fairly steady stream of Elves going down the hall away from my room, only to smack straight into the good Lord Elrond Half-Elven himself. I muttered several apologies, but Master Elrond was not concerned by being the object that had brought me to an abrupt halt. Instead, he kept muttering almost angrily about "That girl constantly getting into trouble and did she have to pick a dragon?" The roaring unexpectedly turned into hysterical screaming. The mighty Elf brushed me aside as he swiftly stepped past me and continued down the halls in the complete and total opposite direction from the rest of the Elves. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, I followed him as he strode quickly down the now empty hallways.   
  
Practically running to keep up with Lord Elrond's stride, we took twist after turn as the screaming drew nearer and grew into a cacophony of unintelligible words. Without warning, Elrond slammed open a door, raced through a room and onto yet another balcony. There lying as still as death was a girl, no older than me. Blood stained the area around her right thigh and the lower part of her leg was bent at odd and uncanny angles every so often. Her skin was rather pale even under its tan, and her face was contorted into an expression of unendurable pain. The girl, who could be no older than me, was hopefully only unconscious and not dead, but she was so still I could not be sure.  
  
Elrond hunched over the girl dressed entirely in black and muttered a few words. The girl seemed to low a slight gold, and Elrond snapped out a few angry words and the goldness vanished. The great Elf lord hunched over and picked up the unconscious form as if it were no more than a child's doll. He walked slowly back into the room and asked me, "Nicolas, your room is closest. I'm afraid I am going to turn it into a healer's room for a few hours. Unless, of course, you object."  
  
"None, no-no objections, whatso-soever, m'Lord." I stuttered in reply. He nodded his thanks and stepped out of the room, his steps as light and silent as any pure blooded Elf. I followed him back to my room, which was, surprisingly enough, only three turns and a room away from the one we had just left. The door stood open, so I hurriedly bowed Elrond and his bundle into my room. There he laid the crumpled female down on my bed and carefully lit candles around the room for light. Then he began to speak in spells for many hours. At first I listened intently, but my limited Elvish could help me decipher no words the powerful healer spoke. The I began to pace, back and forth, back and forth. Then, exhausted, I sat in a chair and fell asleep sometime around four in the morning.   
  
When I woke up the sun had risen high above the trees of late morning. The girl lay sound asleep on the bed. Crutches had been laid next to her bed with a note that was sealed, so I did not read it. There was however a note with my name n it next to my scroll that I had abandoned during the previous night. It went on to say that the girl should be fine, and that Elrond would very much like to speak to me on several topics. Elrond knew that I was not from Middle-Earth, he had not needed me to say it, but when I had told him I knew of all that would come to pass, he apparently received the biggest shock of his life. So it was only natural for me to assume he wished to speak with me on this matter, as his lordship had asked me for such a discussion before. However, that was rare now becaus eof his duties to Rivendell. In fact, I often saw him deep in conversation with a dark haired stranger that had never been mentioned in any books. I could only think that this was another Elf, perhaps one from a neighboring kingdom trying to bring about a closer alliance with Rivendell. Odd, considering I thought this to be a few years before Frodo Baggins set out from the Shire.   
  
Soft groaning and whimpering drew my attention back to the girl currently occupying my bed as she rolled over to face me. Peering suspiciously, I saw that she was still asleep. I carefully looked over her features visible over the blankets and clothes that hid her from full view, but what I saw was pleasing to the eye. A strong face showed determination with a strong but not jutting chin rested against one arm encased in black, which outlined the muscle in her arms. A small, straight nose was slightly spinkled with nearly invisible freckles that seemed unusual with a dark complexion. Had she been from Earth, I would have said she was some sort of Indian, Native or Asian, I never could quite tell the difference. Dark hair seemed so black as to have a shade of blue in it, and was as liquid night. Pale pink lips quivered into either a smile or a frown, it seemed she could not tell which. Amazing thick and long lashes framed closed eyes. Again, had we been on Earth I would have assumed she wore mascara, but here in Middle-Earth no such thing existed to my knowledge. She appeared younger than myself by several years, and I figured her to be about sixteen, eighteen at most.  
  
I thought to gather my things from the room to give the sleeper privacy. So I had piled together notes and scrolls when I turned around for another. Only to find furious kiss-me- green eyes focused on myself. 


	6. Riding to Discoveries

yupp, here ya all go. and right before finals too. Im proud of myself. oooppps.i was supposed to send this to Nahekaa to beta read, huh?oh, well. im sure all who read will *review* and tell me all my wonderful mistakes. everything will hopefully be reformatted/fixed by saturday, rya.  
_________________________________________________________________________  
  
  
  
Nearly silent mutterings penetrated my dream-filled sleep. I kept my eyes closed in case the other pain-in-the-hindquarters person in the room did not know they had been talking loud enough to wake the dead, and me. So that had my blood boiling. That, annndd the teeny matter of falling off a roof, breaking my leg in at least three places, and then being healed by Elrond, again. Occasionally he had to heal me from mishaps I encounter when in any form besides my natural and human form. Sometimes I get a little too in touch which my wild side; an angry cobra slithering around Rivendell tends to get inanimate objects thrown at it. Well, anyways, the point was that I presently possessed a very, very short fuse to a temper tantrum. And if Mr. Muttering-in-English...  
  
"Bloody HELLS!!!!" was the only thought running through my mind as my eyes snapped open quicker than lightning flashes. Which must have been what it looked like when Sleeping Beauty finally decided to quit the chatter about which scroll he was on and turn around to pick up another to add to his armful. I was laying there glaring at him from my position on the bed, in a very unfamiliar room. From the boots in one corner and the collection of yellowing parchments on a desk, I could pretty much assume I was in his room.   
  
However, that still gave him no right whatsoever to intrude on my precious sleep, no matter how poorly I had actually slept. Instead of being grateful, I hotly demanded of him, "Okay. I get the flying off the roof, I got the Elrond healing my very broken leg, but one thing I do not UNDERSTAND IS WHY THE HELLS AM I IN YOUR EFFIN' BEDROOM!!" I took a deep breathe to try and keep my voice from raising above the present deafening decibel level and interrupted the twittering fool trying to explain himself. I spoke in a sickening sweet singsong voice," But I most certainly do understand that you have all of the count of ten to get your scrawny bum out of this room I'm in."  
  
Sleeping Beauty sputtered and turned a wonderfully interesting shade of plum while I intoned exactly how many seconds he had left to live in a mock-bored voice. At 'six' at I began wondering if he would ever shut up. At 'three' I was making sure I was still dressed as he continued rambling about 'Lord Elrond' asking something. At 'one' I was fiddling with my arrow ring. On a cheerful 'zero' I flipped back the covers and skipped over to where Man With No Brain stood gaping at my healed leg. I merrily shoved him into a wall, took a knife from my boot and placed the blade next to his throat. Even though I was shorter than him by about seven inches, I glared up into his very frightened face. Perhaps he finally took the hint that I was not going to stand for his cow manure.  
  
I spat out the words," Now, do I need to escort you to the door, imbecile, or do you think you remembered where it is?" I gripped his arm and levered him over to the door, pressed the handle down with my knife, kicked open the door, stuck out my foot and simultaneously shoved him out the door. He 'accidentally' tripped on his way out and fell flat on his face. When he turned around to give me a bewildered look with a tint of fear I soluted him with my knife, bowed, and walked back into his room.   
  
Without a backward glance I kicked the door slamming shut with a loud thud from the other side. Grinning, I waited a minute or two until there was a muffled. "OOoooocccchh." After a few more minutes footsteps walked away from the door.  
  
I looked around and spotted the crutches and letter. Smiling like a maniac, I picked up the crutches and walked out onto the deck. Then, making sure no one was going to inadvertently walk into the landing zone, I launched the crutches into the air. They came down into a satisfying clatter of splintering.   
  
Still smiling like a mental patient, I walked back inside and tore open the note. It went on saying stuff like, " Pleeaase don't try to give all of Rivendell a collective heart attack. I understand you have issues, but if you won't talk about them, at least don't try to escape them as a dragon, the falcon does less damage, besides messing up people's hair. Blah, blah, blah, I had a fun time healing your leg, it was broken in three places, try the crutches... What am I saying, you're not gonna listen to me. Try to be nice to Nicolas, he is from your world, after all." So that must be Sleeping Beauty's name, Nicolas. I shrugged. I still liked Sleeping Beauty better, or at the very least Man With No Brain. Shaking my head with an evil smile I continued on. Basically, after one decoded the rest of the fancy-shmancy Elvish phrasing, it said to come to the dinner in the North Hall for banquet at sundown, or else.   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Unhappily, I sighed and looked in the mirror. I saw a woman with hair the color of midnight pinned up in a coronet, my preferred hairstyle. Green eyes peered from under long, annoying lashes. A strong chin, high cheek bones, defined jaw, all of it strong yet femeninely beautiful. I groaned. Even in a conservative black dress that showed almost nothing, the woman in the glass would still have droves of unfamiliar male Elves swarming all over her. Grimacing, I added an exquisite black leather belt to my waist. The intricate design of onyx colored beads of some strange stone added a beauty to the belt, making it the only pretty thing I owned with pride. That was because of the matching sheath on the side of the belt. A plain hilt of a knife peered out of the sheath, my favorite weapon. The figure in the mirror also had a new addition to her waist, because the woman was me.  
  
Elrond had made up a set of etiquette rules specially for me. there is a total of fifteen, and they are:  
1- I will be polite for at least the first five minute  
2- I will wear a gown, that is approved by him  
3- If I was gonna knife any annoyances, I was to give them ten seconds to get out of my face before attacking  
4- I would be clean  
5- A maid would inspect me before I left my rooms to insure I was respectable in that I hadn't torn my gown, mussed my hair, or anything else   
6- I was only allowed to carry one weapon, no bows, and the weapon must be prominently displayed  
7- I was not to play pranks on any one, regardless of race or rank.  
8- I must use proper table manners, and proper utensils  
9- I would dance once with at least one person who asked me (I generally blackmail Yurin into asking me, as he had some how managed to become one of the people I did not automatically attack on sight. He says he's my friend, I say he's a pain I tolerate for companionship, which is close enough to calling him a friend).  
10- I would not mention the fact I was not from Middle Earth, unless speaking to Gandalf, another of my few friends.  
11- I would not change forms, I would stay in my purely human body the entire time unless an emergency, such as there is an Orc raid or something.  
12- I was not allowed to have more than five glasses of wine, because at that point my abilities became uncontrollable even though I high an extremely high alcohol tolerance level. It takes about twenty lasses of wine to get me even near drunk.  
13- If someone attempts conversation with me, I was to smile, nod, and if possible make a vague reply before walking off to prevent the person becoming a new addition to the wall decorations. (Blood stains are very hard to get off walls when they are fifteen feet up the wall).  
14- I would walk at least a mile away from the banquet before I began screaming at mindless idiots who were brave enough to actually get as far as # 13.  
15- I was not allowed to throw any temper tantrums, and I as to listen and obey Elrond if he told me to do anything.  
  
Unfortunately, Elrond made these rules up as I attended each banquet, so these rules were necessary for the protection of other party guests. Any one with any idea whatsoever has to who the figure in black was generally avoided me, so I was happy. I was repeatedly telling Yurin I was not antisocial, just don't like to be around morons.   
  
So, five minutes before sundown, after I had undergone all necessary inspections and subsequent alterations, I entered into the crowded North Hall. Dressed as only a Lord Elf would dress, Elrond noticed and motioned me over to the seat next to his. I managed to behave properly through out the entire course of dinner, switching between wine and water to avoid any unpleasantness. And still Elrond did not tell me his Earth shattering news that had him ordering me to a banquet instead of from.  
  
Concentrating so hard on breaking none of the rules, I did not notice the musicians as they began to play. I did not accept any invitations to dance with the guests. Instead I began searching the hall for friends. Yurin had, for some reason, failed to greet me as he customarily did. Elrond's sons were surrounded by simpering female Elves, as both were of marriageable age, so they would not be of any help tonight. Nor were any friends visiting Elrond tonight, though Gandalf had thought to be coming through Rivendell in the near future.  
  
To pass the time until at least one familiar guy came up with the grits to ask me to dance, I began fidgeting with my ring as I stared down onto my lap, my thoughts elsewhere; in fact, they were on the ring I wore around my neck. I had never told any soul of how I had gotten here, to Middle-Earth, nor did I wish to. The reason was because even I did not know how. I should be dead, I thought, that bullet should have killed me. But, no, I had to be wisked off to some fairy tale where I was surrounded by Elves and Men, all of them treating me like some animal in a zoo. I hated it, the strangers peering at me as they whirled by on a partner's arm.  
  
I felt the old, helpless anger welling up inside of me once again. All I could do was to pray to the higher powers that I be not tortured by my past being played out for all to see. It was bad enough when I had to face it alone, but to have these people who knew nothing of me beyond my name and my thieving capabilities, that would send me spiraling down deeper into the well of despair claiming my soul. I shook my head, trying to shake the thoughts from my mind, and downed a glass of sweet wine.  
  
A shadow blocked the light for a minute and I looked up into Nicolas's face. My eyes narrowed and Lord Elrond stepped between us. The look in Elrond's eyes were all I needed to see to snap out of my melancholy, as they were begging for the better half of me to present itself to my fellow visitor to Middle Earth.   
  
I think the wine must have been spiked with something, maybe some sort of potion to lessen the edge of my trenchant tongue, for no smart aleck remark came out of my mouth. Instead, I listened calmly to what Elrond had to tell me. "Lady Dri, I urge you to listen to my counsel. You and Sir Nicolas have much in common. You both are not from this world, and from my time with both I think you are from the same planet, a place you both refer to as Earth."  
  
"What do you want me to do about? Kiss his feet and lead him around, comparing stories? I've read his. Nice, but nothing like mine. He lost nothin' while I lost everything. There is nothing in common, between Nicolas and myself." I took a gulp of my refilled wine glass, swirling it around while waiting for Elrond's reaction.  
  
"Will you expand upon your statement? what did you lose? Dri, it is time you tell me what brought you here. I must know, to protect all I can from a spreading evil. I feel the presence of a dark mind pressing upon my senses. Evil is spreading through our lands. I think you can help stop it."  
  
I snorted into my drink as I heard him. The Lord thought I, a woman of twenty or twenty one (I lost count of the days in Rivendell) was going to stop the evil in his world. "Okay, Elrond, what are you smoking?!" Nicolas's eyebrows shot up, I plowed on, "Because I'm not sure my hearing's what it used to be, 'cuz I swear you just said I'd clear Middle Earth of a big, bad, evil thing. A thing I have no connection with. A thing you don't even know what it is. And your heroine, yours truly, has her own little demons running amock inside her head. Get Sleeping Beauty there to do it. Don't think he has visions of the dead when he goes flying." I tipped back my head and drained my sixth glass.  
  
Elrond gave me an odd look, and then I could almost see him putting my words together. It was like a light bulb visibly turned on his mind.   
  
"YYeeeaaahh. That's what happened last night. The dead paid me a little mid-flight. And they weren't even the ones I killed. Nope, they were the ones who I saw killed. And one of them was an Elf, Elrond, an Elf who has been to Rivendell. Yup, she decided to show up after dieing in my world over three years ago." I tossed back yet another glass of the wine, not caring that I was breaking the rule. I had an odd sensation of my hair growing longer, of a tickling feeling on my back. I was slowly changing, but I paid it no heed.   
  
"Oh, Eru, no!" Elrond whispered. I guess he noticed, as did Nicolas who was backing away from me in horror. Elrond scooped me up, wine glass and all, and carried me from the North Hall unnoticed. Nicolas apparently followed, even though he had not yet spoken.   
  
I could feel my powers changing, my body rippling as my emotions rode like a tidal wave through my body. We entered into an empty room the size of he hall we had just exited. Here I was set down on my feet, which were rapidly changing inside my silk slipper shoes. The chain around my neck was warm against my skin, so I pulled out the ring and rolled it between two fingers as Elrond spoke with Nicolas. I ignored them and began pacing the floor, my slippers shredded with each step I took. The elegantly made wine glass shattered on the floor when I could not longer grip it.  
  
When Elrond turned back to address me, there was no Human there, but a coal black mare. I had transformed into an animal in another's presence, something I had not dared to do. Eyeing the walls as I would a detestable insect, I whinnied and snorted at the battle raging within my mind and heart. It felt like a cage, an enormous cage, true, but a cage nonetheless. Rearing up in defiance of the wall-makers, I let out an ear piercing whiny, coming back down on all four only to gallop around the room.   
  
I could hear a voice yelling, yelling at some one named Dri, but the call went unheeded. My spirit screamed to get out of this prison as I charged a tall figure, who dodged out of my way. I saw a set of clear doors, yet retained enough of my humanity to know not to charge through them. Instead, I ran over to the man with a weaving brow-band and nudged him urgently over to the gates to my freedom. The Elf shook his head, I let out a desperate scream trying to let the Elf before me know that if I was not out I would go mad. I was not a creature to be trapped. Again, the Elf shook his head, and started calling to me softly in Elvish. I understood it, it was a song of sorts to calm me down. He was telling me about the great halls of the Elven kind and I stopped pacing to listen, but when he started on the open meadows of Rohan I started to rear repeatedly.  
  
Then a Man came up and spoke. He said to open the doors, and I frantically shook my head. This one was smart, and Elrond, upon seeing my reaction to the words spoke this, "Dri, you need to escape? I snorted disagreement, then reared again. Once on all four legs I went over to the glass doors and butted my head against them lightly, so as not to break them.  
  
Nicolas spoke again, this time directly to me "You want out of here, don't you?" I nodded agreement, and the Man asked me, "If I let you out, will you take me with you, so you don't hurt yourself?"  
  
I thought about it a minute, then sidled up next to the Man an d sniffed hard. The smell was a nice one, clean yet spicy. I nodded once and the Man mounted me bareback. Elrond told the Man on my back to be careful. And then the door was open and all I cared about was the open air before me. I skirted fountains and late evening walkers in the gardens, leaping over benches while trying not to spill my passenger.   
  
Eventually I was free of the confines of the city of Rivendell and instead swerved to avoid trees. Nicolas was still miraculously on my back, holding on for his life. I ran for the sheer joy, leaving all pain and my idiotic babbling behind. I could feel the heat from the chain still around my neck, the ring hidden in my silky mane. But I cared not, for I was free, for I had escaped the darkness and fear of my past again.  
  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
I was riding the mare through the darkening woods when I first felt the twinges of fear ripple through my body. Odd enough, I was not frightened at my position atop the mare with the wind literally whistling in my ears. Instead, this icy consternation seemed removed from my true body, like it was a ghost walking through my body. Whispers seemed to fill the air. I looked around and saw no one, then noticed it was myself speaking, casting a spell.   
  
Startled, I listened to my lips who were speaking strange words without my mind's consent. It was my voice, strange language. I was beginning to feel a cold chill creep up my spine as I listened to myself speaking in spells.  
  
The mare between my legs slowed, her ears pricked back to listen to my speaking, snorted and slowly began to walk over to a large boulder.   
  
At the boulder I slipped off the horse and onto the oversized pebble, glad to be on a solid, stationary object. My own trepidation coupled with the ghostly fear and I began to shiver uncontrollably. Another voice joined my own in speaking and I looked up into the human face of the strange girl called Dri. Her eyes were full of sorrow, like she knew exactly what I was going through as she talked to me.   
  
My eyes began to see fuzzy shadows, shadows of a dark place I had never been. Three little children spoke around a fire place. I smelled something like bacon, and the vision grew clearer like I had woken up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Then ghostly panic seized my body and I saw they were not children but Hobbits. The vision progressed as I got taller, like I had stood up and started yelling at the other Hobbits. Then it dawned on me: I was seeing the world through the eyes of a Hobbit. Not just any Hobbit, either, but the Hobbit who carried the one thing that ruled the fates of all who dwelled in Middle Earth. I was looking at Peregrine Took, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Samwise Gamgee through the eyes of a certain Frodo Baggins. All on their own atop some hill that was no way in hells any where near the Shire, which is where they ought to be.  
  
And then the whole image disappeared and I slammed into reality. Or at least Dri's fist. Her eyes were no longer understanding, but cruelly blank of any emotion besides fury. The feelings that must have been Ford's were now sentenced to attacking me like little ghosts as I stared into unbelievably green, angry eyes. Then my fear took over as I realized what had happened.  
  
"What the BLOODY HELLS were you doing???? Are you NUTS??? If you had finished your incantation you would have BLOWN your damn mind to BLOODY BITS! ALONG WITH ANYTHING IN A FIFTY MILE RADIUS!!!! I am suuurrreee Elrond would greatly appreciate having a great, big, hole where Rivendell used to be." the pint sized girl spat at me with her loathing of me evident in her tone.  
  
"What day is it today?" I asked in a whisper, my mind racing towards uncomfortable conclusions.  
  
"What day? You nearly explode all of RIVENDELL, and ME. and all you can do is sit there and ask me WHAT DAY?!?! Well, I'll tell you what day it is, it's your DEATH DAY, YOU MINDLESS MORON!!!!" she ended up yelling at my face.  
  
Before she could kill me, I interrupted, "NO! This is very important! If its what say I think it is, we're all going to need to stay alive! I know what is going to happen! I must tell Elrond! Now, would you kindly tell me what date it is today."  
  
"October 6, in the year 3018, according to the Shire." Dri intoned in a bored voice with her arms crossed over the front of her dress. "Now do I getta kill ya?"  
  
"Not until you use proper grammar. In the meantime, you can take me back to Elrond."  
  
"And exactly why would I ever want to do such a thing? I betcha, Sleeping Beauty, that you didn't even think about where I was headed. For all you know, I was goin' to Mordor."  
  
"Sarcasm is not becoming."  
  
" Nor is stupidity. 'Side, I'm darn proud of being butt-ugly."  
  
I could not help but laugh at Dri's comment. Standing there in her dinner dress, she was rather beautiful, if a little tom-boyish at her modest dressing.   
  
"Well, if we're going on how ugly people are, I think I deserve a first place-"  
  
"In Ugliest man alive." Dri finished for me.   
  
When I looked at her, her left eyebrow was cocked. So, in answer, I cocked one of my own. Or attempted to, but it didn't work. I must have spent five minutes trying to raise only one eyebrow while shivers of fright tiptoed up and down my back. So, finally in defeat. I used my index finger and pushed my eyebrow up and looked back at Dri. By now she was wearing a completely puzzled yet bemused expression.  
  
I dropped my hands to my thigh and assiduously studied the stone beneath me to hide a faint blush as I inwardly berated myself for acting the fool. Then my blush disappeared as the now-familiar fear escalated until I saw the world through Frodo's eyes.  
  
My back stiffened as 'I' waved a sword around, hoping to fend off the menacing Wraiths that were twice as tall as me. Stumbling backwards, I tripped and dropped my sword. Scrambling to get away, I noticed from the corner of my eyes that the other Hobbits were carelessly thrown aside in the efforts of the Wraiths to get at myself. Defenseless and on my back, my hand groped for the chain upon which was hung the ring. Fighting the impulse for half a minute, I slipped it on and vanished from the sight of all on Weathertop. The world seemed to blur before my eyes, like it was departing from the spot I lay upon at the speed of a thousand miles an hour and somehow the scenes had been slowed down so that could hear better than I ever had. The ring was cold, even icy, against my grimy skin. Cowering within the body of Frodo, I mentally screamed at him to take it off, take off the ring. Yet he did not hear and instead we both focused on a great, flaming eye. It was the Eye of Sauron, the lidless eye surrounded by flame that never ceased to search for the one thing that stood between its master and the domination of all Middle Earth.   
  
A malicious laugh sounded in the world seen only when wearing the ring and pain tore through my shoulder. I had been stabbed by a poisonous blade of Mordor. I heard not the yells of Aragorn, known as Strider, as he came charging to the rescue waving sword and burning limb like a madman. A very, very skilled madman. It was then I heard a new female voice, yelling in English for myself to come back. I jerked off the ring and succumbed to the blackness that welcomed me with open arms. 


	7. Running, Stabbing, Hunting

Dear all reviewers: Thank you a million times over. Your comments make me a better writer. Thanks for beta reading, Nahe. and majick/daisy for listening to me rant and rave about flying monkeyss and writers block.And to the person who did not have a name, what is confusing? The whole switching POV? The parts when Nicolas is seeing through Frodo's eyes, or all the nice little typos sprinkled throughout? Cuz I can't fix it if all I know is sumthin's wrong.  
************************************************************************************************************  
  
Grimacing, Nicolas's face wrinkled in fear and pain after I slugged him as hard as I could without running the risk of breaking his jaw (I knew from past experiences that Elrond became very, disgruntled, shall we say, when forced to heal injuries caused by a certain lady in black). Yet Sleeping Beauty did nothing to me. His eyes were blank and wandering, roving some unknown scene played out before his eyes.   
  
Inside I was frightened. Once I'd had one of my occasional bouts of hallucinations while dressing for a banquet. At first my eyes seemed normal, until I began to see things of my past flitting in my room behind me. I continued, for some peculiar reason, to stare at my self in the mirror and proceeded to scare myself more than I ever had: the look in my eyes was one that only passed over the face of most normal creatures once, when they died. But then my usually bright, alert eyes were as dull as those of a dead person's.   
  
That was similar to the look now in the eyes of Nicolas, yet also unlike. His were more comprehending, making me believe that he was seeing something, most likely not dead friends and family from the past. He moaned in the language of the Shire, telling me to take off the ring. I looked down at my chest where the ring Kara had given me lay warm against my skin.  
  
Then, before I could stop it, Nicolas went invisible. Without a clue as to where he had gone, I frantically called his name to the woods, only to receive no answer. I stooped down and began to feel for Nicolas, my ring swinging freely as I worked swiftly around the rock.  
  
Abruptly, I sat up straight and something physically burned my skin. Hissing at the sudden pain, I groped at the hurt, only to burn my fingers on the fiery ring. Grasping the chain alone with my other hand, I raised the ring to eye level. Now, on the inside of the previously unadorned silver band was an icy blue, flowing script around the ring. Holding the fingers of my burned right hand close to the ring, I noticed that the script was branded on the burned portion of the pads on my fingertips. Carefully, so that the ring given to me by Kara touched no part of my body, I raised the chain it hung on over my neck so to better see the writing.  
  
Thinking hard, I forced my mind to understand the inscription. When I did, I shivered and repeated the words aloud in their native language of Mordor: Finder of the Lost, Keeper of the Light, One Battle In Heart.   
  
No sooner did I finish speaking did the ring well, burn out, I guess, and Nicolas reappeared balancing precariously at the edge of the enormous boulder we were on. He turned and looked at me, then without any sign of warning, Nicolas' eyes rolled up into the back of his head. Unconscious, he flopped off the boulder, falling a good five feet till he smacked the ground.   
  
Quickly, I melted into the form of a snow leopard and crossed gracefully to where Nicolas had been and looked down to his crumpled form. Had I been able to, I would have been grinnin' so hard my jaw would ache. That is because I was no longer the one falling off the edge of things. A minute breeze swept the forest and allowed my hyperly-sensitive nose to pick up the sharp, copper tang of blood; the stupid git had cut himself.  
  
Thinking mental threats on incompetent morons causing more trouble than I, I leaped down and surveyed the problem. Lady Night swiftly approached on her chariot of darkness, causing me to need the excellent night vision of the leopard. Sleeping Beauty was taking a nappy-wappy and showed no signs of getting up soon. I was tired from my run of about twenty five miles away from the edge of Rivendell. And then there was the fact that Man With No Brains had turned invisible on me. I was sooo not about to star in The Invisible Man II by running through the forest after dark chasing Nicolas.   
  
Thinking about Nicolas made me remember that at even five feet you can break bones. So, I padded over to Nicolas and sniffed him all over. I don't really know what I was smelling for, cuz as far as I know snow leopards can't smell broken bones. But at least I knew he smelled, really, really nice, even after going on a wild run bareback on some horse-girl. Sort of spicy, like what I'd smelled in wild horse form. Except for a scent that centered around a stab wound on his shoulder, which smelled like a mixture of rotting body and sulfur. How the hell he got those on his wound was beyond me, as was how he'd gotten stabbed in the five minutes he had been invisible  
  
Poison. The thought hit my mind like I had smashed into a wall of bricks. The sulfur was from a poison, the dead person was who stabbed him. Cussing, I melded back into human form so I could look closer at the wound. My first impression on the nature of the wound was correct: stabbed, shallow, but enough to get poison in the blood stream. I'd seen worse. Shuddering, I threw the door of memories that lead to Kara and Alex shut, and for once they stayed behind my mental barrier.  
  
A book in the library came back to me. one on the healing capabilities f ordinary herbs and plants. Titled simply "The Healing Forest", it was actually a suggestion of Elrond's that had me read it, in case on one of my numerous wanderings or vacations from Rivendell I got injured. I ripped off the skirt portion of my dress, to reveal that I wore pants with many pockets. Keeping an eye on Nicolas, I sat down and began emptying my numerous pockets. Over the years I had added more pocket to carry the necessities for wandering.   
  
After all pockets were emptied, I sifted through the surprisingly large pile until I came to a green paper packet I had labeled Athelas. I then found a clean handkerchief and used my knife to rip it to strips approximately four by twelve inches. These and the packet I set apart and continued rooting through my things on the ground. After collecting the necessary items, I combed the area surrounding the boulder until I came to a small stream.   
  
Muttering the words my friend Gandalf the Grey had taught me, an item resembling a thimble glowed with a grey sheen in the twilight. Using my forefingers, I gently pulled the sides of the open end, expanding the metal sides until they were about six inches apart. I spoke the second phrase Gandalf had told me to and the metal ceased to glow. Then I used it to carry water back to the spot with my junk.   
  
After searching the ground for about ten minutes, I had collected enough stones to make a ring. While picking up stones, I had also grabbed any kindling or fire wood I could. Plopping gracelessly to the ground I set up my fire pit and proceeded to light it with a set of flint stones. Half an hour passed and I dipped the ragged strips of cloth into boiling water. I then placed a few leaves of Athelas, the healing herb, in the center of each strip and twisted the cloth until no leaves showed, each one securely twisted into place. Then I redipped the twisted rags into the heated water before placing the steaming packs of medicine over Nicolas' wound.  
  
Now, I know that this was not the usual way to treat a person with Athelas, but I had found it to work more effectively on myself this way. So, seeing as how Nicolas and I were both from Earth, so it only made sense that it would also work better my way on him.   
  
He moaned slightly when the packs first touched his skin, but stayed resting. The bleeding had stopped while I had been heating the water, so I gently cleaned the blood and bandaged the stab wound with a snow white piece of handkerchief. Now I was sure that the wound would heal, but Sleeping Beauty would live up to his name for a few more hours, the way he looked.   
  
Yawning, I transformed into a owl, and flew in circles around the area to make sure there would be no unnecessary surprises during the next few hours. The way I saw it, I could switch to cougar form, nap and check Nicolas every hour, hour and a half. When he woke up, we'd start heading back to Rivendell and be in our separate bedrooms before the sun rose.   
  
Once finished scouting and satisfied with what I had seen and heard, I flew back to the fire, banked it, and followed my plans. Or, actually, turned cougaress, and tried to fall asleep. But I kept thinking, my tail twitching back and forth, back and forth. So it did while Nicolas slept on, never waking, never stirring.  
  
What had happened when Nicolas turned invisible? What turned him invisible? What was up with my ring? Did I bring Nicolas back to the visible world? What had he seen? How was he important? What made him realize what I wanted back in the hall, when I was a wild horse? Why did he want to come? What did he care? What was I to this stuffed up man? What did the day mattered? How did I even remember it? And when in all the hells known to all creatures was he gonna wake his lazy bum up? Those were the thoughts my mind was turning over, examining form every angle possible, searching for answers while the moon rose and slowly began its fall.   
  
I checked on Nicolas for the fifth time in the night and saw the Athelas was doing its job well. Several times I found myself nearly unconscious myself, even though my mind was still actively pondering.   
  
Lady Sun was beginning to make herself known to the Eastern horizon when Nicolas finally opened his eyes and groaned. Scrambling to my feet, I went over and began to stare intently into his eyes, my tail twitching expectantly. When I first looked into them back in the hall, trying to assess his motives, they were a clean blue that matched the sky just after a magnificent storm. Now they seemed to have dulled ... or... faded. A small growl rumbled in the back of my throat as this phenomenon added itself to my already too-long list of questions.  
  
Unfortunately, Nicolas thought I was an ordinary cougar. Who knows where the hell his mind had gone on vacation to. Maybe Tahiti. Or China. Or for that matter, maybe he was blind and somehow the glittery chain around a cougars neck seemed totally natural. But anyways, he just sits there petrified, beads of sweat literally just popping out on his forehead, muttering, "Nice kitty, nice kitty cat. I'm sure you do not want to eat me. "Sides, I probably don't taste to good. But, see, you don't want to eat me..."  
  
The rumbling in the back of my throat grew louder, like a laugh. Which only made Nicolas even more scared, and he started cussing. Just to see what he would do, I raised my paw and set it on his head. Unfortunately, the Man With No Brain chose that exact moment to shine through as he flipped out a knife from a sheath from some unknown spot and slashed it on my neck. He only managed to draw a line of blood and break the chain around my neck, irritating the hell out of me. A yowl echoed in the pre-dawn air and I leapt on top of the ignorant asshole.   
  
I don't know about you, but having an angry seven foot cat from snout to tail that weighs about 150, 175 pounds jump on your stomach, well, it just knocks the wind outta ya. Which is exactly what happened to Nicolas. Except than the overgrown house cat* changed into a 5'2 hundred and twenty pound pissed off woman sitting on your stomach. Which is also exactly what happened to Nicolas.   
  
I yanked the knife from his grip and held it to his throat, from which a wheezing noise was sounding. Rolling my eyes, I used my knifeless hand and slapped him, causing his faded eyes to focus on myself.  
  
"What the BLOODY HELLS were you THINKING?!?! Oh, wait a minute, EXCUSE ME, I forgot, YOU CAN'T THINK!!! Do you just randomly knife animals? Especially when they don't hurt you? ESPECIALLY!! WHEN. THEY HAVE A GODDAMNED NECKLACE ON????????? Are you completely blind, or JUST RETARDED? OR ON CRACK? CUZ most NORMAL people can tell a cougar wearing A BRIGHT SPARKLY NECKLACE is A) a pet, or B) ME!!!!!" I glared down at the idiot from my perch atop his stomach, just waiting for him to answer with some retarded retort or pathetic excuse, giving me another opportunity to scream my lungs out.   
  
Only, it never came. Nicolas just looked at me with his eyes wide open, much wider than anyone should ever have. Leaning down, my nose got within an inch of his as I stared intently into his eyes. They were even more faded, like something was sucking out all the color. Shadows flittered in the back of his eyes and I knew he was not seeing me, or anything around his actual body.   
  
Cursing, I stood up and began muttering to myself as I retrieved my ring and broken chain before stuffing them into a pocket. We were about twenty-seven miles from where Elrond's palace or whatever people called it was. After twenty-five miles, I could probably get assistance from several other Elves at the edge of Rivendell. But first I had to drag Nicolas that far. And I was exhausted. My leg ached dully, even though both Elrond and I had both healed it completely. Broken bones generally protested so much work, even after they've been healed, for at least a good week or so.   
  
I couldn't do anything right then, so I decided to take my own nap, and hopefully during my dreams a plan would worm its way into my brain. Curling up into a ball, I made sure that Nicolas was still staring wide-eyed into the sky on his back. Certain he would stay that way long enough for me to sleep, I closed my eyes and drifted off.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
A faint screeching shattered my peaceful sleep, waking me up in the evening shortly before the sun began to set. Looking around, I searched for the far off source of the disturbance, finding none. Nicolas still lay where I had last seen him. Fear was written over his features, yet his eyes focused less on what was here. Half-lidded, he seemed like one with a fever. I checked, but he had none. Removing his bandages, I saw the poison seemed to have left, being soaked up by the packs of Athelas. And yet, he seemed sicker, not better, at the absence of the poison.  
  
Mentally, I ran through a list of things that could be causing this abnormality. The wound was appearing to heal fine, I was almost positive the poison had been drained by the packs of medicine, but the skin on his stabbed shoulder seemed pale and tinged with blue surrounding the fine white stab wound that had healed. I must have slept for more than just a day, possibly two or three. Shaking my head, I rocked back onto my heels, wondering what devil was at work.   
  
When the sun had nearly disappeared from sight, more faint screams echoed in the air, like the wind had traveled far to bring the noise to my ear. It made me wonder if I was the only one that heard them. But one glance at Nicolas' rigid form made me know I was not.  
  
Nicolas began muttering, his speech slurred like he was drunk. I crawled over to where he lay weakly struggling against some unknown enemy. All I could make out was something about a ring, something called 'wraiths', and the pain. At the mention of the last one, I started to tremble: it was too much like the time I had seen Kara, when she died as I sat by powerless to stop it.   
  
Trying not to show how terrified I was that this man could die, even though there was no personal connection, I dug in my pockets until I found a tiny straw-like tube. In it was a drug I had concocted that made one sleep a dreamless sleep for over twenty-four hours. It was what I used on myself when the illusions of dead came to keep me company. I used my knife and sliced off the top end. A pale green jell-like substance oozed slightly, threatening to spill over. Propping up Nicolas' unresponsive head on my lap, I stuck the open end of the medicine tube n his mouth and proceeded to squeeze all of the tube's contents into his mouth. In minutes the pale blue eyes closed and he was asleep.   
  
Getting up, I dusted off my hand and walked over to my extinguished fire and threw the empty tube into the ashes. Clambering on top of the boulder, I turned into owl. I needed the eyes used to dark, and flapped hard to gain altitude. Making no sound whatsoever, I flew. And flew.   
  
Mid-flight I changed into a night-time blue dragon and flew for nearly another hour. The ground below rushed by, massive trees looking no bigger than a baby's toe. Throughout the flight, I listened intently and heard several more screams, each one louder than the last. Finally, one angry cry erupted from the forest directly below me. Swiftly, the scales of a dragon melted into the spotted feathers of an owl as I switched back into my small, feathered form.  
  
Landing in a tree so as not to draw attention, I waited. My ears picked up all the sounds of the forest, including the light pounding of a horse's hooves. Birds fled the trees by which the pattering came from. Erupting into view, a figure cloaked entirely in black ragged robes atop a soot black steed. A blackened sheath rested by the figure's side.  
  
On a hunch, I concentrated as hard as I could. Soon, the fruit of my effort became visible: I had replaced my beak with a miniature version of a wolf's snout. High power olfactory sensors told me that my guess had been right. The wraith before me did indeed smell faintly of rotting corpses. My feathers puffed up in disgust as my snout returned into the form of a beak.  
  
Another wraith soon joined the one I was watching. Nodding their hooded heads, they spurred their horses into action and thundered beneath my branch. Gone were the wraiths and I fluttered down to the ground and transformed into a grey wolf. Sniffing the spot where their horses had stood while the two riders cloaked in black conversed, I learned where each had been. Making note of the particular scents, I took off loping in the direction that the wraiths had neither been nor gone to.  
  
The endurance of the wolf kept me running through the woods, covering mile after mile. I did not see a wraith again, for any time I heard their piercing cries of frustration, I ran in the opposite direction. Their paths of a search pattern became evident as I crossed their trails many times and pieced together a little. There were nine creatures searching, and whatever they hunted was in this forest. I was determined to find what they hunted. I knew Gandalf was expected in Rivendell, and this could be him. I shivered, my old friend was a wizard, but I doubted he alone could fight off so many of these evil creatures, minions of an ancient evil named Sauron. Yes, I knew of Sauron and his evil ways, through my readings and by an interesting conversation I had once, with both Gandalf and Elrond.  
  
Three hours had passed since I had changed to wolf, and still I kept running, bounding over fallen limbs and dodging trees. Then I stumbled over a new path, a path very different than the ones made by the Black Riders. Interpreting what my nose and eyes told me, I figured there was one person from the race of Man, three midgets that were known as Hobbits, and a small pony with a rider, most likely a fourth Hobbit, that occasionally dismounted and walked before being re-hoisted on the horse.  
  
Following this path for half an hour with the nighttime stars twinkling down on me, thinking as usual. Gandalf was most definitely not with these people, as he had a very distinctive smell. Yet the one usually riding the pony carried a scent that reminded me of Nicolas, with his wounded shoulder. It had the same sulfuric scent, tinged with Athelas with the barest hint of death. The Man too, had a familiar scent, only it was his body smell that was familiar. Not bad, just a very unique combination of air and ground, like one who roamed the forest. Sweat occasionally dripped onto the path, and then I was sure that this Man was most defiantly known to me. The only problem was that I knew many Men from my travels, and I couldn't even narrow the identity of this one down to either male or female. The prints could possibly be made by a male of medium height and weight who knew how to cover his trail, or just a female who weighed little and had large feet. The horse slobber that made its way to the ground was easily identifiable, for I had occasionally gone to the town of Bree, and had there met a pitiable pony named Bill owned by a rather nasty man named Bill Ferny.   
  
The names of the Hobbits eluded my puzzling until I began to hear soft sounds caused by travelers in a hurry. My tongue lolling out of my open jaws in a wolf grin, I slowed down and trotted until I was within earshot but out of sight. I could make out three midgets on foot, Bill the pony carrying another, and, when the Man turned round to give encouragement to the little folk, I recognized the Man to be Strider. If these midgets were under the care of Aragorn the Ranger, they were indeed well off. As a friend of Elrond's daughter, Arwen, I knew her soul-mate well, and Aragorn was thus by his ties to Lady Arwen, a friend of mine.  
  
The six creatures before me halted and I heard one of the midgets question Strider: "What is the matter with my master? His wound was small, and it already closed. There's nothing to be seen but a cold white mark on his shoulder."  
  
I waited to hear the answer, for Sam's master's condition was exactly like that of Nicolas.   
  
"Frodo has been touched by the weapons of the Enemy," said Strider, "and there is some poison or evil at work that is beyond my skill to drive out. But do not give up hope, Sam!"  
  
Swiftly, I returned to my purely human form and laughed softly. Aragorn whirled around while drawing his sword as all the thinking midgets clumped together in a terrified huddle. I laughed again at the sight of Strider sword in hand, looking for the source. Grinning, I waited for him to see me, as he demanded, "Who are you, who laughs at the peril of others?"  
  
I stayed silent, standing exactly where I was. An Elf might have been able to see me, but of course Aragorn could not, because I was dressed in black, as always, and blended in perfectly with the dark forest. Instead he muttered something to the Hobbits and cautiously made his way towards me. So, to have a little fun in scaring Strider outta his wits, I turned Elf and stepped off the path, circling Strider, and ended up about three feet off the path directly behind the little party of shorties.  
  
When Aragorn got to where I had been standing, he knelt down and examined the tracks I had left, as a wolf to human before the disappeared as Elf. Stepping out onto the path, I spoke aloud for him to hear, "Tsk, tsk. Losing your touch, Aragorn. Time was you'd of told me where I was simply from stepping. Now you can't even tell by a laugh, and you have the whole squad of Black Riders after ya. Frankly, I'm amazed you ain't dead yet."  
  
Aragorn whirled around, and sheathed his sword, "Lady-"  
  
"Nope, lose the 'Lady', m'lord."  
  
"Dri, what in the name of Eru are you doing out here? You know the risk you run."  
  
"Well, let's see. I turned dragon and went flying for a day, cuz I was bored. Then some dead friends decided to drop in and I went nuts, and fell off the roof back home, broke my leg and Elrond healed me. Then I went crazy at a banquet a couple days ago, October the sixth, I believe, and the dude named Nicolas decided to hitch a ride on the wild mare that was me. So I ran to keep the dead away. Of course this was before Elrond spilled the beans that had him forcing me to the banquet in the first place. So I'm about, oh, eight leagues from Rivendell, I calm down, and go human. I start talkin' to the dude. Then all of a sudden, he starts going blank on me in the middle of our conversation. Then, after a minute or so of looking like he was in Lala Land and yelling at me to "take off the ring", he turns invisible. I take off my ring, repeat what the normally blank band says, and he reappears with a stab wound on his shoulder, and not making any sense. He then goes unconscious and falls off the rock. I treated it with Athelas, and took a nap. I don't know how long I slept, but I woke up before the sun set this night. I heard the wraiths, and thought you might be Gandalf, as he was supposed to be in Rivendell by now, but wasn't when I left. So I followed your trail in wolf form."  
  
"I have gone too far north of Rivendell, which is our goal." Strider said.  
  
Snorting, I replied dryly, "I noticed. If you go any more north you'll end up south of Rivendell."  
  
Aragorn gave me a exasperated look. I leaned around him and waved at the Hobbits and greeted them, "Hi, midget people! My name is Dri, and I'll be your guide from now on. I am currently on the run after escaping from the mental ward Elrond runs. The place I live is Rivendell, of which your previous guide couldn't find even if he was two feet away from it."  
  
One of the two nameless Hobbits leaned over to the other and goes, "Maybe we shouldn't go to Rivendell if all Elves are like her, Pip."  
  
"Secrets don't make friends," I said in one of those sing-song voices, " 'sides, Merry, I can still hear you, cuz I gots the ears of an Elf! Anywho, I ain't no Elf, I'm a human!" As I said the last part I shrank back into human form. Grinning at the bewildered faces, I turned around and started interrogating Strider, not showing my surprise that I had remembered Merry's name from Kara's reading.  
  
It turns out that on October 6th, they had been attacked by the Black Riders. It started when ___ said they saw black figures following, and Aragorn went to investigate, leaving the Hobbits on Weathertop alone. Frodo slept, and the others made a fire and cooked a meal. The fire was like a lamp, and the moth-like Wraiths flew to it. A fight ensued atop the ancient fort, in which Frodo was wounded by a knife wielded by a wraith before Strider could prevent it. Throughout the time that Strider related his tale, his downcast eyes told me he was holding back on something.  
  
I questioned, but he would give me no straight answer as to whether or not anyone had the power to turn invisible. Finally, exasperated, I shocked all present when I berated Aragorn telling him, "I know what makes these little folk so great a prize to Sauron he send the Riders abroad. Frodo Baggins carries a Ring that is dearer to the Dark Lord than himself. Indeed, the Ring is the One Ring he forged in Secret to rule all the peoples of Middle Earth. Gandalf told me as much, Elrond could not deny it, and I once met an ancient Hobbit who is Frodo's uncle, told me flat out. 'Three Ring for the Elven-kings under the sky,/Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,/Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,/ One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne/In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie./ One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them./One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them/in the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.' Now, I need to know if it turned Frodo or any one else invisible."  
  
I could feel the terrified stares that the Hobbits were giving me, now that I had turned serious, as befit my need for his information.  
  
Reluctantly, Strider looked into my eye. It was all I needed to knew and I whispered, "Frodo did, didn't he?"  
  
Aragorn nodded and said, "That was when he was stabbed, stabbed by the blade of the enemy."  
  
I focused with my eyes closed, changing them to the eyes of the Elven kind. "Let me see it, for I know you would have kept it, Strider."   
  
He did as I asked and with my new eyes I looked at the hilt, for it was, as Strider told me, all that remained of the evil weapon. To my keen eyes, the blade shimmered with writing in the tongue of Mordor, saying dark sayings. "There are evil things written here, though perhaps your eyes cannot see them. Keep it, Aragorn, till you reach the house of Elrond. Be wary! And handle it as little as possible. I urge you to go on without stopping, for you are far from the safety of Rivendell. There are no Riders in your path within three miles, and their cries sound closer than they truly are. But be careful, my friend, for these little ones and you shall rule the Fate of all Middle-Earth. I will meet you in Rivendell, after I have a little fun with the creeps who ought to be dead, and their master, too. And drag Nicolas back to Rivendell. I fear that somehow he, too, was stabbed by the wraiths, yet I know not how."   
  
Finished with being unusually eloquent and serious, I turned and walked by the quivering Hobbits. Pausing at Bill, I stoked his fuzzy nose before I even looked at the injured Frodo Baggins of Bag End. His eyes were nearly closed, but I saw what had once been brilliant sapphire eyes were now as pale sky-blue as had been the writing on the ring given to me by Kara. Bending over to stroke his feverish head gently, I whispered in his large ears, "Finder of the Lost, Keeper of the Light, One Battle in Heart." It seemed to comfort him, because for one brief moment I could see his eyes focused on the real world, not the one he saw through the power of his wound. Then he closed his eyes and slept noiselessly.  
  
Looking back at the others, who were watching me, I told Strider, "He is a fighter, and fight he does. But if he did not receive aid, there will be a tenth wraith, and no land will withstand the Dark Lord if he gets Frodo. Good luck, and may your feet carry you swiftly to Rivendell." With those final words of advice, I turned and faded into the forest, where I turned myself into a dragon the size of Bill. Grinning, I thought to myself, Perfect to get the ugly gits' attention and small enough to maneuver around the trees. Then, with one last thought wishing the others who were already moving out of sight, I launched my self into the air. Time for some Trouble, with a capitol 'T'.  
  
**************************************************************************************************************  
*Okay, for anybody who knows me, overgrown house cats ( big cats, tigers, leopard, ect..) are perfectly tight. They are not little innocent fuzzballs that look Kinda cute as they trail you around.. right before they morph into ugly little vermin with a death grip on you hand. Now, for all you who don't personally know me, I am absolutely terrified of cats/kittens. I seriously run when they're around, or refuse to get outta the car if there's a cat within fifteen feet of the path between me and the front door. Just house cats, the big cats are totally fine. You KNOW they're dangerous. Okay, ill shut up. just no want certain peoples, like MAJICK, to get the wrong idea., considering she has this little stuffed cat that she allows people to terrorize me with. Yes, its stuffed, and yes, its still scary. 


	8. Huinemeoi

yeah, in your dreams, Dacey (Daisy, Majick). Actually, I was sleepin, after staying up til 530 wathcing my kewl Dvd, Extended LORD of THe Rings. And then getting up at 7 to leave the house by 8 to go to Oz, cuz my flying monkey was afraid we'd get there after lunch. I got there, oh 1130, 12. we didnt eat till 1 30 or so. gggrrrffff. THen I slept, and ThEN I read my new LOTR books......  
____________________________________________________________________  
  
A plan slowly formed in my mind as my dragonish form blurred past stationary trees and my powerful wings gulped up the air. I would mess around with the puny brain cells of these wraith-jerks and then go to Mama Dragon, hauling tail back to Nicolas. From there, I would check on him, and then fly back to Rivendell, where I would crash for a vvveerrrryyy long time. Like a year. Maybe two.  
  
After time, near dawn, I found a small gathering of four Riders. Fangs bared in a grin, I thought of my daring, and most likely suicidal, plan. I mentally shrugged. It didn't matter what I did, or if I died. I could help save six, no seven, lives if this worked. If.  
  
Three minutes later, microscopic creature flew over to the wraiths, and landed on one. Then, without warning, It started to flash, exactly like the strobe light the inspiration had come from. A horse reared at the sudden blinding flashes, and before any of the bewildered wraiths knew what was happening, the source of light flew in the middle of them. And began to expand like a giant balloon.   
  
Laughing, for look on their ghost like faces I could now see in my own flashing light was one of amazed disbelief, I launched myself up into the trees and exploded into Mama Dragon. I heard the piercing war cries from below and knew I had sufficiently caught their attention.  
  
Lazily, so I was flying slow enough for the black figures below to keep me in sight, I began to drift in figure eights, occasionally aiming a small fire bomb at my ground pursuers. I let this continue until we were at the very edge of the forest, where they had first started until I let loose one massive roar that shook the nearby trees. With one last flaming spitball at the emerging wraiths before flapping my wings furiously and flying off into the distance as the enraged shriek of the wraiths told me they could not keep up.   
  
Once the forest was out of sight, I turned around and made for the spot I had left Nicolas. I finally reached it two and a half hours later with a soft touch down. Quickly I returned to human form and rushed over to his still form.  
  
Asleep and untouched. I heaved a tired sigh of unmistakable relief, despite the fact that Aragorn had told me if they, Frodo and for some reason Nicolas, did not fight, they would turn into wraiths, servants to the servants. Already Nicolas was visibly worse and I did not need to see his eyes to know they would be pale and lifeless, empty of any vitality and therefore without color, save a silver glow.  
  
I let out a soft curse or two. Actually, it was thirteen. But you try going without food for who knows how long and being short on sleep, not to mention energy, and the knowledge that you'd have to haul some guy's bum back to Rivendell to save him even though you don't like 'im, and not be a tad bit on the testy side.  
  
Five minutes later, a navy dragon clutching a non-screaming man flew away from the spot where I had first come as a wild mare. With my luck, my nice little sleeping potion would wear off somewhere over the forest and Man-With-No-Brains would wake up and decide that to solve the problem of flying over a forest and being clutched by dragon talons, he'd start screamin' his poor wittle nearly-dead head off. I snorted, and a flicker off flame brushed my nostrils.   
  
Some time later, I was over the edges of a bustling/ deserted Rivendell. I had lost count of how many times I had mentally chanted '99 Bottles of Beer on The Wall', 'Little Bunny Foo-Foo', and had been on 'This is the Song That Never Ends' for the past half hour. I was exhausted from my numerous changes and flight to and from the woods. It just happened that I was in one of those moods where ya just wanna punch someone, or yell at them for no reason.  
  
Silently, I shrunk my size to a small as I could and still carry Sleeping Beauty. My touchdown on a balcony near Arwen's rooms was anything except smooth and gentle; I actually cracked the stone and ripped off a good chunk of the railing.   
  
Almost before I had settled, Arwen had rushed onto her deck and caught me changing to human form. She was inspecting Nicolas' still form and calling for Elrond when I sat up.   
  
Elrond appeared quickly and rushed over to Nicolas, who had opened his eyes. They gleamed like bits of a mirror, unnaturally bright and reflective of a silver light. Worried, he knelt down and I started telling them of what I had seen and done since Elrond had last seen me gallop away from sight.  
  
When I got to the part of Aragorn, his lover gasped and fled to her rooms. I spoke over the sounds of her scrambling to change into riding dress and arm herself. Running back onto the deck she said hurried good-byes. Minutes later the pounding off a horse's hooves echoed from the stables as she left to search out the lost. Pausing in my tale, I mentally wished her all the luck I knew of.  
  
A low moan came from Nicolas, and I stood up and held back the thin and veil like curtains to Arwen's room, allowing Elrond to carry Nicolas inside. There I was told to get some sleep, and for once I listened. Groggily I ignored the headache that had overcome my head while talking and made my way to my own rooms. My eyes wee closed and I was asleep even before I had finished falling onto my bed.  
  
~*~*~**~*~~*~*~*~*~  
  
I woke up mid-afternoon the next day, groggy, thirsty, and hungry, but a quick trip to the kitchens solved those. Sugary pastries do wonders to wake me up. Almost as good as diet pop* back when I was in good ol' Earth. I sighed and wandered around the halls, checking for Nicolas and/or Elrond as the effects of the sugar began to take effect.  
  
Whistling, I checked the halls to make sure no one was watching and changed into a nice, jet black bunny. Who began hopping around Rivendell like it had consumed all the sugar in existence. Wow, that musta been some pastry, cuz I was just zooming around. Literally, I was bouncing off the walls.   
  
Which was all very nice for about two hours. Before I ran right into Elrond's shins and returned to human form with a smack. Rubbing my head I stood up and cheerily announced to the disgruntled Elf, "Ouch, that hurt! Hellooo, Mr. Elrond!"  
  
Obviously not my normally dark greeting and Elrond winced at the sunshine in my voice. Ignoring him except to stick out my tongue, I started jumping up and down in a circle. Hehehehe, I was really high. Remind me to never, ever eat those things ever again.   
  
Finally, after a few minutes I stopped bouncing and calmed down. Elrond's face was worn, and there were bags under his eyes. "Arwen's not back yet, huh? Well, it'll take a few days. No worries, no worries."  
  
"I have done all I can for Nicolas, and still he continues to fade. There is nothing more I can do, not until Frodo Baggins of the Shirre comes to Rivendell. I have felt a connection that binds the fate of Frodo to that of Nicolas, and it cannot be broken. I fear that were it not for this connection, Nicolas would never have been wounded as if by a Mordor blade. It cannot be broken except for one way, the one way the Ring can be permanently destroyed."  
  
"Well, that's one worry down."  
  
"But I have my worries over you, and what you said that night in the hall."  
  
Groaning, I sat down on a bench. "Lemme guess, this is your guilt trip to makin' me spill the beans on my past."  
  
With a tired look on his face, Elrond answered, "It seems this is the only way to find out about you, and I need to know, for your past may rule the fate of all."  
  
"GGggggrrrrrrfffff" I muttered. "Better get comfy, it's gonna be a long story to tell you."  
  
/////An: due to the fact this is long, I'll break it into paragraphs, but most of the time it's Dri telling her past. /////////  
  
"I was born on a fall afternoon, kickin' and hollerin my head off like the rest of us. Earth was a magickless place, and most believe not in your kind or any besides the race of Man. And Man was pretty sleazy in my place. My birth mother soon after became a drug addict, as she was maybe twenty one and married to a twenty one year old drunk. It was not a happy marriage, and most money went to either booze or drugs.   
  
I had a brother, Alexader. Weird name. I think my parents were drunk and forgot the 'N' in Alexander. As a matter of fact, my full name is Kadrianna, but that's just too girly.  
Anywho, Alex was three years older than me.   
  
We looked out for each other, me and Alex. I was ironically the more responsible one. I had a small job walking dogs for this old man. I would disguise myself as a preppy little angel of a kid, pick up the dogs, and then ditch the outfit. I would then walk around with the mutts, and pick pockets. No one suspected the little girl with a pink poodle named Fluffi.   
  
I learned early on to tell how high my mother was, so I could go get her paycheck and buy some food, but mostly she was out of a job with no money. That's why I first turned thief, to eat. My parent fought when they were conscious enough, and I roamed the streets freely. Anyone who wanted to survive that way learned early on how to defend themselves. I survived quite well. I had knifed someone by the time I was nine and burglarized a pretty nice shop by age ten. Rough, for a kid. But I knew no other way of life.   
  
Probably the most important person top me besides Alex, was my best friend, Kara. When I was eight I was on my job, walking dogs, when I saw the girl flit down an alleyway.   
I followed. She had a knife, so I thought to steal it, as my last one had broke when I brilliantly dropped it out a six story window in front of a garbage truck. She looked like she only six, so I thought nothing of takin' the knife and figgered she'd probably found it in her kitchen before wanderin off.   
  
Was I ever wrong! That was a fighting blade, and when I tried to snitch it she turned and gave me a pretty slice on my shoulder. It was exactly what I would have done had someone tried to take my knife. We became friends, and I learned she was an orphan, livin' in an ally. She had made her own little house, out of wood leftover from the never-ending construction in the city.  
  
A few weeks later, my father was drunk and started an fight with my mother. He threw his bottle of booze across the room, and pulled outta gun. Mother just screamed at him, drugs clouding her mind just like beer clouded my father's. He killed her, and then himself. Alex and I huddled behind the couch the whole time, holding onto each other.  
  
The neighbors heard and called the police, and we were sent to foster care. But the man was drunk and used the money for beer. It was too similar to our dead parents, so we left. This time, no one knew.   
  
We found a condemned apartment building, and took it over as our own. It was in a run down neighborhood, the slums of the city. Inspectors ignored it as it was a waste o' time. Any that did come near were knifed. Generally by me, but a few were hit in drive-by's by gang members reacting to the invasion of their turf.  
  
Years passed, and Kara and Alex fell in love. I continued my dog walking till the man died. Thieving was an everyday occupation. My neighborhood turned violent, and my life was harder. It was an effort just to get out the door without being shot by the time I had turned seventeen. Police avoided our area, except on sunny, stifling hot days when it was to draining to fight.   
  
Meanwhile I earned a reputation, an anonymous one, too. I was called Shadow Cat by those in the city. All that was known about the Cat that she went around, thieving and constantly wearing black from head to toe. She once broke into a highly guarded museum, only to leave a note that the paintings were very beautiful. Other times she left notes at the police station with clues as to who had killed who in what brawl. And once she stole a pair of combat boots from a general's apartment while he was showering. Later, when the knowledge of the mysterious person was city-wide, the unknown Cat became a hero to some, a vigilante to others. They knew she resided somewhere in the infamous area named 'Fighter's Block' and defended the buildings.   
  
Over the years, there were perhaps twenty bodies found with the distinctive calling card of Shadow Cat: the initials S C cut into the cheek with a knife by quick strokes so as to seem like scratches from a feline. The reason they were found was because a woman reported an unknown assailant, regular punk had attempted rape. The attacker had been stopped, er kicked realllllyyyy hard, and the women ran off. The body would then be found beaten and cut, and of course the initials. Often the dead had raped more than one woman, and had arrest warrants out.   
  
Another body with my mark was that of a kidnapper. Police found the six year old boy victim outside the station, and all he could say was "The nice lady in black brought me here, Mommy!" The kid had obediently gone to the next room before I slit the *&^$*^ of a kidnapper's throat.  
  
Once a lost wallet was returned to a poor woman with a note of apology from "Shadow Cat". I had not known that the woman was so poor when she worked a job as a maid until I found out that because of the woman's immigration much of her money went to the upkeep of her papers.  
  
Over the years people learned to live with the unknown watcher of their safety and sometimes robber of a few dollars or some goods. Many decided that the name Shadow Cat had been aptly given, indeed, due to the Super-heroine the name was originally derived from, due to the heroine's ability to slip through shadows. At least, that's what I heard on the street, in between stealing some food or a few bucks here and there.   
  
Never was I caught, not as thief and not as Shadow Cat, yet always I left my mark, whether on a wall or body. It didn't matter.  
  
I never carried a gun because of the horrors guns did to me. That and they were more easily traced than a replaceable knife.  
  
Later on Kara and Alex legally became man and wife. I was there as witness and maid of honor. Some random guy off the street was the second witness. Those two were as happy as anyone with a million dollars. Kara eventually got pregnant, and we were all slowly working towards getting legitimate jobs. Slowly but surely, we were making honest money, if no very much.  
  
But that ended when a well known gang leader raped and murdered Kara. His name was Hans, and many of his followers were violent second-generation immigrants. The only reason he had still lived was because he covered his tracks too well. Even I couldn't pin anything on him, though part of me always suspected.   
  
Alex found me on the street. I never told anyone, but I had just come from a promising job interview, and had thought about giving thieving up completely. Until I was left with a raging black hole in my heart where Kara had once been.   
  
I stole only a chain to keep her last gift, a ring, on. The rates of those found with the Shadow Cat insignia increased, but now some were left alive, depending on their crimes. No raper lived. It was my wrath, my fury that had me kill. Most of these men I had seen committing crimes before, and had ignored them. Now some one had used that against the ones I loved.  
  
Then one night, I finally stole some grub and nearly botched the job, I returned to home. Alone. And they struck, Hans at the lead. He told me then he had done Kara. Sorrow overwhelmed me as the gaping wound I had been trying so hard to ignore was laid out for all to see. I didn't try to kill, only escape. I had planned long ago that Kara's killer would die painfully, over two hours, like she had done.   
  
I fled. I ran Alex down, and the shooting began. I watched as bullets punched into Alex's chest, and he died. I was alone, with nothing left to live for. I saw a shadow in my room, and called for them to kill me. I remember the crack of the gun and the explosion of pain, the ring on my finger. That's it..   
  
I woke up here. Rivendell did something to me. It was as if the very air spoke and told me there was no reason to fear within these walls. The second day I remember here is vivid. I was walking, and reading the poems carved in trees, where it is called the Lover's Dwelling. I found there a poem, written by a Karalin Inthoyun. The wording was the same, the handwriting the name, all the same.  
  
Kara's full name was Karalin Inthoyun. That's how I know she was an Elf, and has seen Rivendell. I checked the records: she was a friend of the Prince Legolas Greenleaf. It described her in every way, down to a dimple in her left cheek.  
  
Pieces to a puzzle fell into place. In my world there is a trilogy of books that tell of your world. Your kind do not exist in my time, in my world and are regarded as mere fairy tales told to amuse the little kiddies. Only Man is the sentient species, civilized and most ignore the call of trees. Few places are untouched by modernization and retain little of the sense of pureness that exists in your woods. Yet she had a connection with the trees, and I swear to you she would whisper to them, and I could not understand. It was Elvish, Elrond, Elvish that you and I are speaking this moment! Her accent, I now know, is that of the Elves. She constantly talked off the Elves, and Legolas. Once she slipped and said her friend, the prince.   
  
Kara described things like your home, and once described your temper. She was right! By all the gods in existence, she knew things no other could! We had a tree that she used to sit in and read those books that are not regarded as reality but fiction, and told me it was like on at her home. That tree mirrored the one her poem was on!   
  
Despite my solving of a few riddles, there is still the whole to solve. She had not the ears of the Elvish, yet of Elven kind she was. How was she in my world, as a child? And yet a great, mature friend to Legolas. What of this ring? What did she mean by 'saving her'? Who is her? How is it that I am in your world, and can speak or read any tongue I see or hear? How can I change my shape to what I choose? These are the things I need your knowledge to fill in the gap."  
  
Finished at long last, I gazed into Elrond's eyes. Those eyes told of thousands of years beyond count, each with its sorrows and joys and coming into wisdoms. There would be more heartaches and bittersweet moments ahead for this gentle person. Yet his eyes held not the answers to my question.  
  
Getting up, I began to pace. "I have done my own readings, searching for these answers, only to find more clues that enlarged the puzzle rather than diminish. There is a recent book, by your standards, anyways, that tells of the making of a new Ring. This Ring was like the Dwarven metal mitrhil, but different. It was simple, completely devoid of any decoration or design. It could not be harmed, only destroyed when the Ring to which Its fate was bound was also destroyed. I believe the Ring to which It was bound is carried by Frodo, and I carry the Ring created by none other than Karalin Inthoyun and called by Its maker 'Uruuva Mornie' or Fiery Darkness. There is only the idea of Uruuva Mornie's creation, and supposedly there is a way to test it, just as fire tests the dark lord's Ring. Some of this I have learned through books, others through my many travels."  
  
"Indeed, Dri, it seems from what has happened to you do carry Karalin's Gift, as the Elves call it. Lady Karalin Inthoyun studied under the Lady Galadriel after her parents were slain in battle during the Last Alliance. There Kara was allowed to glimpse into the Mirror of Galadriel, and saw all that would come to pass were the Ring returned to Sauron."  
  
"Isildur had the Ring, and only the Lady Karalin knew what would happen, that it would all lead to a small Halfling called Frodo." I spoke as the realization dawned on me.  
  
Elrond nodded gravely and kept talkin, "So in an effort to combat the evil of Sauron's Ring of Power, the lady came to me and said she would be forging a Ring of power to good. She would bind Uruuva's Fate to that of the One Ring. And she did. Her pure intent, however, was not without a price. When the forging had been finished and all the power implanted in Uruuva, both the silver Ring and Its creator disappeared. "  
  
"She was sent to my world!" I gasped out.  
  
"So it seems. Now that darkness has crept back into the corners of the world, and the Dark Lord knows his Ring is not destroyed but merely lost, you come bearing Karalin's gift. You are the Light-bringer of hope."  
  
"But how can you be sure I bear the Uruuva Mornie?"  
  
"The one distinguishing fact of Uruuva is that when the One Ring is in use, Uruuva seems as if It is on fire, and an inscription would appear. Lady Karalin refused to tell me what would appear, saying she herself did not yet know. And when she supposedly completed the Uruuva Mornie, Lady Karalin Inthoyun was not to be found, despite a search."  
  
Raising my head to look at Elrond, I knew there was a stubborn look on my face. "Then I shall go with the One Ring of Power, where ever It goes. That ugly git Sauron can't have Middle-earth, not while I still live. It seems that the 'she' Uruuva Mornie will save is all of Middle-Earth"  
  
"Than I give you a knew name, Lady Kadrianna."  
  
"I have a name, and it is only Dri. All other names died with my heart long ago."  
  
"Than let it be your surname, Dri."  
  
"Nope, thanks but nnooooo thanks. Sides, it'd prob'ly end up being Tittaulundo."  
  
"'Little monster'? No, I was thinking of-"  
  
"Look, if I'm gettin a new last name, it sure as hell ain't gonna be somethin like 'Starlight" or anything girly."  
  
'You need a last name."  
  
"Says who?" was my indignant retort. "I do just fine without one."  
  
All I got was a little glare that made me know that Elrond was just as stubborn as I was. "Choose one or I shall name you."  
  
"Fine." I muttered. "Just give me a sec."  
  
Finally after about five minutes of thinking, I came up with one. "Huinemeoi. Kadrianna Huinemeoi. " It was fitting, to call myself what so many others had unknowingly called me before, on Earth. I had chosen to put together two words and come up with-  
  
"Shadow-Cat. Fine." remarked Elrond. "from now on you are Lady Kadrianna Huinemeoi, bearer of Uruuva Mornie"   
  
"Just call me Dri, okay?" I said as I got up. "I chose a last name just to keep you happy and so I wasn't something like Dri Flower or any of that sort o' rot. Huinemeoi just reminds me of who I was, who I am."   
  
________________________________________________________________________________  
A joke for dacey, cuz Im generally sugar high on something or another, especially diet coke. When she hears this, she generally moans NOOOOOOOOO!!! not again! Toto.. why'd you do that?? at which point I laugh insanely. Anywho, most spellings when Dri is yappin away is to kindoff get the whole un-educatedness thing in. So thts why a lotta things are spelled odd, or missin a letter or two. you can tell I no likes the 'g's in 'ing'.  
Also, I apologize if the Elvish is off, Uruuva, I mean. I was on a website that had translations, so it was bettetr than makin up my own word for fiery  
  
I SAW TWO TOWERS !! *blows raspberries* 


	9. Lack of Intelligence

Groaning, I woke up and looked around my room. Messy as usual, left alone by the cleaning staff. It was exactly as I preferred. I heard on the streets about how parents always yell endlessly about cleaning up rooms. Well, having no parents solved that. Yet I never understood why the elderly folk always seemed to forget that in most cases us youngins could remember where we put our stuff and that having everything organized was unnecessary to find stuff for those of us without short term memory loss.  
  
I solved the problem of nagging maids, servants, whatever they actually were, by finally just leaving a bloody knife on my floor, next to a rabbit I had shot. It made a wonderful mess and sent the young Elf-chick screaming her poor, pretty head of and she refused to ever clean my rooms again. She acted like it was a cardinal sin, or something, to not have a room cleaned. They treat me like someone of high rank, and I despise it.  
  
I groaned and went over to my north wall. The entire area was covered by a weapons rack, full of knives, two set of bows and quivers, a bundle of arrows, and two Elvish style fighting swords. The last two I had yet to name, but every other weapon had an identity that fit its job Pathetic, I know, naming knives and such, but it's my way and I'm not about to stop now.   
  
Taking a deep sigh I started strapping on weapons. The two nameless swords went on my back, making an 'X' in their special sheathes. The straps in front held pouches for throwing stars and smaller daggers. My bow, similar to the ones used by Galadriel's people, went over the one that my left hand would grab, my quiver over the right one. Again, sounds weird but it was my way and it worked for me. My combats boots had small straps sewn into the material on the inside to prevent the knifes I kept on my calf from sliding down and rubbing blisters on my ankle. My thighs were weaponless, but only because that's where the majority of my pockets were. These I refilled as needed and added a few of my own concoctions, including a homemade smoke bomb and a mini Molotov cocktail, ready to be soaked, lit, and thrown. Other objects that were defiantly Earth-inspired found homes on my person before I was finished and walked out the door.  
  
Winding my way through the oddly crowded halls I found my way to Nicolas' rooms and let myself in with a little help from my lock picks that were hidden in my coronet of hair. The guy was sleeping, peacefully, his skin a normal color and a red tint back in his cheeks. Just to be sure, I took out a small vial that reminds me of a miniature pixie stick and broke it beneath his nose, allowing him to inhale it. I waited a minute to make sure the fast acting sleeping powder was in full swing before I peeled back an eyelid. Sky blue irises, thank God. Nicolas was free from the wraith-world, and so, then was Frodo. I turned and walked out of the room without a backward glance. The sleepy stuff would only last about five minutes, so I wasn't worried about Sleeping Beauty never waking up or anything like that.  
  
Next stop on my list was the Library Room, where I went to a certain shelf, opened a particular book to an exact page, and got out a pen that had come with me from Earth and a piece of parchment. I traced the map of Middle Earth, just to be on the safe side. I mean, I knew my way decently around, I had gone most of the places. But if you accidentally wind up in the Shire instead of Rohan on a previous excursion, you might wanna bring a map if you're headin for Mordor.   
  
Finished, I went to what was basically Elrond's office so I could inform him of my new vacation ideas. I barged in, ignored the travel-stained Man that was there and started talking despite their conversation. "Oi, Elrond. I'm gonna leave for a year or two, so see ya round.!" I wheeled to leave the room, but I should of remembered how sharp and Elf's perfect ears are.   
  
Instead of him just letting me go, I got this sortta stately, Elven version, "WHAT?!?! You come back here right now, missy and tell me what its all about!"  
  
So I turned around, gave a death-glare to that stupid Man, took a deep breathe and began spouting off in Elvish to avoid that slimy Man's eavesdropping. 'Yeah, listen. I woke up, thought for maybe a minute, and decided there are gonna be big things now that Frodo and the One Ring are here. So, I decided, take Uruuva Mornie, leave and head off for a little while. I was thinking, somewhere with stinkin marshes, poisonous air, big bad dude roamin' around. Sounds kinda like Mordor, doncha think? But first I as gonna hang around with Galadriel, steal some lembas, and then hide out somewhere in a Mordorian cave until you all decided to get off your lazy bums and send the Ring to its destruction. I'll help the Ringbearer destroy the damn thing, get rid of Uruuva, come back to Rivendell and chill. Maybe I'll kick a little Sauron ass along the way, but if not, cool."  
  
"Lady Kadrianna Huinemeoi, I believe it best that you stay in Rivendell until we have decided what we are going to do with the One Ring that Frodo bears." This is where I started humming tunelessly, as I ignored Elrond and began fingering my knives and looking suspiciously at that Man. I guess I musta been nodding my head too, cuz 'fore I know it I hear Elrond going, "Then we are agreed?"  
  
I did what any sensible person would do. Walk away. Only to be called back, again, by a rather annoyed Elf-lord. And then there was still my nice little one-Man audience, all of this combining to annoy me, despite the fact that I was rather cheerful and rested. Elrond gave his look, that one he seemed to reserve specially for me as no one else appeared to receive it. I returned with my own special I- don't- care- that- you're- glaring- at- me- cuz- I- can- glare- back- look.   
  
"Are we or are we not agreed?"   
  
"Umm, Elrond? Remember what I said? You know, the whole spiel about not wanting any titles or anything? I sorta stopped listening at the 'Lady', much less my full name, probably due to the fact that there is not a speck of 'Lady' in me. But anyways, I am going, unless you have any better ideas." With a small grrfff of annoyance I crossed my arms over my weapon-covered chest  
  
  
"My deepest apologies, Dri." I grunted, which he wisely ignored and kept yappin, "and yes, I do have an idea. There is to be a council today, in an hour and one half, to be precise, and I would appreciate your presence. You, as a bearer of Uruuva Mornie, owe it to be there when the fate of the One Ring is decided, and thus the fate of the Ring you bear mapped out. Actually, I was just discussing this matter with Boromir, son of Denethor."   
  
At this point I glared at both Elrond and Boromir, the well traveled Man, and muttered a rather rude comment about my opinions on the male sector of that particular race. Let's just put it this way: any Man who understood would have been blushing furiously and crossing his legs in a rather uncomfortable manner. Which only made me grin crazily at my rash statement. Again I was given The Glare as Elrond Glare-giver just wouldn't shut up.   
  
"All the races will be represented, and so I would deem it appropriate if you, only woman of your kind known to be in Middle-Earth, were there to essentially show some self interest."  
  
"Nooooo-"  
  
"Frodo Baggins shall be there."  
  
"-thing planned for then. But I'm not coming human, okay? It' bad enough that its   
gonna be entirely guys, but to have a he-Man, like our Boromir here, there you'd hafta pay me a million bucks to see ME. So no flippin if you see a hawk that likes to land on your chair or sumthin."  
  
"Fine."  
  
I turned around and walked out the door and started headed back to my rooms to unload a little before the "Yelling Morons" Contest I had been blackmailed into it. First was the whole 'It's your duty' tactic. Then Glare-giver used Frodo against me. I have a fascination with Hobbits, probably acquired from my friend Gandalf. Those creatures, Hobbits, I mean, are like tree-hugger midgets. Yet, they are as strong and unbreakable as my swords when need be. And here was a Hobbit who had a mere trinket that laced his destiny with mine. Of course I was fascinated.  
  
Gandalf! I had forgotten to ask if he had arrived! I turned around with not a little swearing an headed back to Elrond's office but before I had even reached the door I heard Elrond call out in the common tongue "He's around, Dri. He should be here in about twenty minutes, if that wizard decides to be on time."  
  
  
Grinning, I quoted Gandalf's favorite retort to remarks on his lateness. "You know 'A wizard is never late, nor is he early, Elrond Half-elven. He arrives precisely when he means to."  
  
"And that just happens to be exactly this minute." added a warm voice behind me.  
  
"Gandalf!!" I practically shrieked in recognition as I spun to embrace my ancient friend, nearly knocking him down. "What happened? You didn't come, I was ready to go find you myself, Mithrandir." I backed off to give him room from my deathly hug and looked questioningly into his expressive eyes.  
  
"All will be revealed at the council, which I suppose you are being ruthlessly forced to attend, Dri?"  
  
"Actually, Gandalf, she has agreed to come on her own. She was on the verge of refusing before I informed her that a young Hobbit by the name of Frodo Baggins would also be in attendance."  
  
"So that explains the absence of any blood on walls or floor," said Gandalf with a wink at me, "all for the best, I am sure. Hail to you, Boromir, son of Denethor. I suggest you be careful around this woman, and keep your tongue clenched firmly behind your teeth for she nearly always manages to outwit one despite the effort one puts into his side of the losing battle of words."   
  
Groaning, I pulled out a live knife and began tossing it up in the air, making it cartwheel many times before I would catch it by its hilt. After a moment of silence I spoke my mind, "Don't matter what he says or what he don't say. I'm gonna judge 'im by his actions. And he might wanna know I have a pretty damn short temper." I didn't know why I spoke so uneducated, more than usual, I mean, and threw in the 'damn', but something about this Man reminded me about Hans, the way they both seemed to have a cautious air about them. Grrrfffff. I flipped my knife one last time before catching it and replacing the weapon back in its sheath in one fluid movement, turned and walked back out the door. "See ya at the Council, Mithrandir!" I called over my shoulder before I was   
gone.  
  
Again I headed back to my rooms, this time using the less crowded halls. That must be why they were crowded, Elrond's Council. A broad smile graced my face as I entered my room and walked over to weapon racks and began unloading. I did not however, ditch all of my knives or my swords. You never know with strangers, and besides that Boromir guy there were Dwarves runnin around, and Dwarves and Elves go together as well as me and a bright pink dress full of frills.  
  
Stomping over to my wardrobe case I yanked it open and rummaged through the few clothes on the bottom of it until my hands brushed against rough canvas. I yanked out the tan colored package and began to undo the knots in the string and shoved it back into the wardrobe, leaving me with one hand full of black material. It was made in Lothlorien, woven as a gift by the Lady Galadriel herself. She knew without me telling her that I wore no color other than black. Maybe it was her eyes that told her so, maybe it was that mirror of her. Either way, she gave me a cloak in the darkest of blacks I had ever seen. It was as if even the shadows were a bright sun near the cloak, as if it sucked all the light from the air around it. Perfect, if you ask me. There were special slits to provide for my swords, and numerous pockets. Galadriel knew my habits well.   
  
Just as the cloak settled on my shoulders I heard a great warning bell. The Council of Elrond was about to begin. An idea took root in my brain, and instead of completely changing my shape I merely shrank and grew wings that were as black, if not more than, my cloak and turned into a fairy. I experimented with my wings a moment before zooming out past my balcony and off to the meeting place.  
  
When I got there Elrond was just saying, "Here, my friends, is the Hobbit, Frodo son of Drogo. Few have ever come hither through greater peril or on an errand more urgent."  
  
I settled down on the chair back of Strider, who was present, and told him I was there. Surprising enough, it was as if he knew when and how I was gonna come, because he just nodded and whispered so softly even I had trouble hearing him, "Right on time, Dri. You have not yet missed anything." to which I laughed .  
  
Elrond continued to drone on, introducing the others. I knew of Frodo, the Elves Glorfindel, Erestor, and Galdor. I sat up straight with shock when the odd Elf done up in green and brown who was introduced as none other than Legolas Greenleaf, prince of Northern Mirkwood with an urgent message from his father, King Thranduil. Then there was that suspicious Man Boromir, who was looking just a tad exhausted from his morning ride. Gandalf, Strider, and of course, Elrond were all present. Two Dwarves, Gloin and his son Gimli were also present. I had seen the last one running around for a few days, and currently possessed a knife that had been in his rooms. So far I hadn't been questioned bout any missing knives.   
  
Those at the council started talking about things going on outside of Rivendell, but most of them I had already known of. That is, I thought I knew of them until Gloin told his disturbing tale, "'It is now many years ago,' said Gloin, 'that a shadow of disquiet fell upon our people. Whence it came we did not at first perceive. Words began to be whispered in secret: it was said that we were hemmed in a narrow place, and that greater wealth and splendor would be found in a wider world. Some spoke of Moria: the mighty works of our fathers that are called in our own tongue Khazad-dum; and they declared that now at last we had the power and numbers to return.'"  
  
The fat dwarf sighed heavily and kept on, "'Moria! Moria! Wonder of the Northern world! Too deep we delved there, and woke the nameless fear. Long have its mansions lain empty since the children of Durin fled. But now we spoke of it again with longing, and yet with dread; for no Dwarf has dared to pass the doors of Khazad-dum for the lives of many kings, save Thror only, and he perished. At last, however, Balin listened to the whispers, and resolved to go; and though Dain did not give leave willingly, he took with him Ori and Oin and many of our folk, and they went away south.'"  
  
I had been near the area of the mountains where Khazad-dum lay beneath in Elvish form, and a dark form had pressed upon my mind. I'd entered through the Eastern doors and saw nothin alive except the numerous goblins that lived deep where the Dwarves had mined. I saw and heard no Dwarves, but still the sense of evil pressed against my mind until I relented and left. A little research showed that the darkness was a creature of terror to the Elves, and all that would do good, for Balrogs oppose anything pure and yet take no darker sides than their own.   
  
The old dwarf continued on, and talked of how a horseman for the Dark Lord Sauron hammered on their door a year ago and questioned their Dain about Rings and Hobbits, and how there was a friendship to be made. Luckily, the Dain had told him to come back, cuz he needed time to think about it. (Luckily, I do not think that the Dwarves knew of Bilbo's real actions concerning the Ring he had once had. I do, I stole his book while he was 'resting' his eyes.) The messenger returned three times for news or the 'trifle' of Bilbo's. Gloin ended his end of the council with these words "'And so I have been sent at last by Dain to warn Bilbo that he is sought by the Enemy, and to learn, if may be, why he desires this ring, this least of rings. Also we crave the advice of Elrond. For the Shadow grows and draws nearer. We discover that messenger have also come to King Brand in Dale, and that he is afraid. We fear that he may yield. Already war is gathering on his eastern borders. If we make no answer, the Enemy make move Men of his rule to assail King Brand, and Dain also.'"  
  
"'You have done well to come,' said Elrond. 'You will hear today all that you need in order to understand the purposes of the Enemy. There is nought that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it. But you do not stand alone. You will learn that your trouble is but a part of the trouble of all the western world. The Ring! What shall we do with the Ring, the least of rings, the trifle that Sauron fancies? That is the doom that we must deem.'  
  
'That is the purpose for which you are called wither. Called, I say, though I have not called you to me, strangers form distant lands. You have come and are here met, in this very nick of time, by chance as it may seem. Yet it is not so. Believe, rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world.'  
  
  
'Now, therefore, things shall be openly spoken that have been hidden from all but a few until this day. And first, so that all my understand what is the peril, the Tale of the Ring shall be told from the beginning even to this present. And I will begin that tale, though others shall end it.  
  
Elrond then told of what I already knew, some from Kara and her books, other stuff from my research.   
  
There were the Elven-smiths of Eregion and their friendliness with Moria. The only things that those Elves were guilty of eagerness for knowledge, by which Sauron ensnared them. He had not yet shown his dark side, but gave the smiths his help and they became masters in their craft, while he learned their secrets. Sauron the Deceiver betrayed all of them and forged secretly the One Ring, master of all the others, in the Mountain of Fire. Only Celembrimbor knew of his cloaked evil and hid the Three he made, the Three Sauron had never touched. War broke out, decimating the land into little more than nothingness and Moria's gates shut.  
  
They continued with the history, and I shrank my size and began to flutter around the area where those attending sat. In the back, darkened corner there was a single chair sat alone and unused, with only the Elf runes for my name on it in the wood working. Someone was too lazy to just get a piece of paper, so they designed the whole dang chair for me. I hovered over it, momentarily forgetting about the talk behind me and decided it would make a nice addition to my rather bare room.   
  
I left it and began to half listen as the history of the Ring was traced, and I fluttered over, little more than a minuscule dot wavering about the air and sat down on the shoulder of Elrond. He had an excellent set up, the Men on one side, then a spew of Elves with the Dwarves next to them followed by Gandalf, Bilbo, and Frodo.  
  
The morning had run away before Elrond was even near finished lecturing, of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and the fall and rise of many. He paused at last, and sighed, making me think he had either finished or talked his tongue into a bloody pulp. But, nope, can't do that, now, can we?  
  
"'I remember well the splendor of their banners,' he said. 'It recalled to me the glory of the Elder Days and the hosts of Beleriand, so many great princes and captains were assembled. And yet not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so.'  
  
'You remember?'" asked Frodo.  
  
It made me want to smack him on the head, but my tiny hand probably would not have even been felt. Instead, I settled for saying sarcastically, "Of course not, he read about it in the weekly Times, back here in Rivendell while there was a dark overlord threatening to end all good in the world. Of course Elrond remembers, idiot, he just happens to be immortal!"  
  
But I wasn't even heard as Frodo was speaking his thoughts aloud in his astonishment. "'But I thought,' he stammered as Elrond turned towards us, ' I thought that the fall of Gil-galad was a long age ago.'  
  
'So it was indeed, answered Elrond gravely. " But my memory reaches back even to the Elder Days. Earendil was my sire, who was born in Gondolin before its fall; and my mother was Elwing, daughter of Dior, son of Luthien of Doriath. I have seen three ages of the West of the world, and many defeats, and many fruitless victories.'  
  
'I was the herald of Gil-galad and marched with his host. I was at the battle of Dagorlad before the Black gates of Mordor where we had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-galad and the Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil broke beneath him; but Sauron himself was overthrown, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand with the hilt-shards of his father's sword, and took it for his own.'"  
  
Now Bilbo took up his tale, but that story is told in "A Hobbit's Tale: There and Back Again". But, since I had already read it before, as I said earlier, it was really only revised information to the Dwarves and comletely new news to anyone not concerned with that adventure. It went on for very near an hour until Bilbo finally stopped.  
  
Here the lumbering lump of Man, Boromir broke in and declared like it was some great mystery. "'So that is what became of the Ring!'" he cried. 'If ever such a tale was told in the South, it has long been forgotten. I have hard of the Great Ring of him who we do not name; but we believed that it perished from the world in the ruin of his first realm. Isildur took it! That is tidings indeed'  
  
'Alas! yes,' said Elrond. 'Isildur took it, as should not have been. It should have been cast then into Orodruin's fire nigh at hand where it was made. But few marked what Isildur did. He alone stood by his father in that last mortal contest; and by Gil-galad only Cirdan stood, and I. But Isildur would not listen to our counsel.  
  
''This I will have as weregild for my father, and my brother,'' he said; and therefore whether we would or no, he took it to treasure it. But soon he was betrayed by it to his death; and so it is named in the North Isildur's Bane. Yet death maybe was better than what else might have befallen him.'  
  
'Only to the North, did these tidings come, and only to a few. Small wonder it is that you have not heard them, Boromir. From the ruin of the Gladden Fields, where Isildur perished, three men only ever came back over the mountains after long wandering. One of these was Ohtar, the esquire of Isildur, who bore the sword of Elendil; and he brought them to Valandil, the heir of Isildur, who being but a child had remained here in Rivendell, but Narsil was broken and its light extinguished, and it has not yet been forged again.'  
  
'Fruitless did I call the victory of the Last Alliance? Not wholly so, yet it did not achieve its end. Sauron was diminished, but not destroyed. His ring was lost but not unmade. The Dark Tower was broken, but its foundations were not removed; for they were made with the power of the Ring, and while it remains they will endure. Many Elves and many mighty Men, and many of their friends, had perished in the war. Anarion was slain, and Isildur was slain, and Gil-galad and Elendil were no more. Never again shall there be any such a league of Elves and Men; for Men multiply and the Firstborn decrease, and the two kindreds are estranged. And ever since that day the race of Numenor has decayed, and the spans of their years has lessened.'  
  
' In the North after the war and the slaughter of the Gladden Fields the Men of Westernesse were diminished and their city of Annuminas beside Lake Evendim fell into ruin; and the heirs of Valandil removed and dwelt at Fornost on the High North Downs, and that now too is desolate. Men call it Deadmen's Dike, and they fear to tread there. For the folk of Anor dwindled and their foes devoured them, and their lordship passed, leaving only green mounds in the grassy hills.'  
  
'In the South the realm of Gondor long endured; and for a while its splendor grew, recalling somewhat of the might of Numenor, ere it fell. High towers that people built, and strong places, and havens of many ships; and the winged crown of the Kings of Men was held in awe by folks of many tongues. Their chief city was Osgiliath, Citadel of the Stars, through the midst of which the River flowed, and Minas Ithil they built, Tower of the Rising Moon, eastward upon a shoulder of the Mountains of Shadow; and westward at the feet of the White Mountain Minas Anor they made, Tower of the Setting Sun. There in the courts of the King grew a white tree, from the seed of that tree which Isildur brought over the deep waters, and the seed of that tree before came form Eressea, and before that out of the Uttermost West in the Day before days when the world was young.'  
  
I started to hum tunelessly for the second time that day, and second time during Elrond's all important review. Or at least, review for me. Only a few more moment were filled with chatter before Elrond fell silent.  
  
Then that proud git of a Man, Boromir stood up. "I have traveled many days from Gondor, and with her voice I tell you this: the blood of Numenor has not yet been spent, nor has the pride and dignity been forgotten. By our valor and strength of arms have your lands been kept free of the wild folk of the east and the terror of Morgul kept at bay, and only we keep the bulwark against evil still standing strong. But what if we fall? Truly the hour may draw nigh, for the Nameless Enemy has arisen again. Smoke rises once more from Orodruin that we call Mount Doom. The power of the Black Land grows and we are hard beset. When the Enemy returned our folk were driven from Ithilien, our fair domain..."   
  
I was getting bored, mainly because I knew all he was saying. Black boogie men were roaming the edges of the land. It basically scared the shit outta every he-Man between there and Timbucktoo. They were attacked at this bridge place by Osgiliath. They kept the bridge until they were forced to jump and swim back when it was cast down behind them. Now Boromir had a puzzle- a nice little bit of trivia from Kara.  
  
Tuning back in, cuz I was gettin a tad bit bored as Fairy Dri, I heard, " In that dream I thought the eastern sky grew dark and there was a growing thunder, but in the West a pale light lingered, and out of it I heard a voice, remote but clear, crying:  
  
Seek for the Sword that was broken:  
In Imladris it dwells;  
There shall be counsels taken  
Stronger than Morgul-spells.  
There shall be shown a token  
That Doom is near at hand,  
For Isildur's Bane shall waken,  
And the Halfling forth shall stand.  
  
Of these words we understand little, and we spoke to our father, Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith, wise in the lore of Gondor. This only he would say, that Imladris was of old the name of the Elves of a far northern dale, where Elrond the Half-elven dwelt, greatest of lore-masters. Therefore my brother, seeing how desperate was our need, was eager to heed the dream and seek for Imladris; but since the way was full of doubt and danger, I took the journey upon myself. Loth was my father to give me leave, and long have I wandered by roads forgotten, seeking the house of Elrond, of which many have heard, but few knew where it lay.'"  
  
"Here your queries shall be laid to rest, as shall those with questions shall hear the answers they sought. Strangers from distant lands, friends of old. You have been summoned here to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle-earth stands on the brink of destruction, none can escape it. You will unite or you will fail. Each race is bound to this fate, this one doom. Bring forth the Ring, Frodo."  
  
The small Hobbit did so and sat back down, looking like a great weight had just been relieved of his tired body. I leaned forward, not to gawp at the Ring like the others, but to intently study the looks on the faces of all present. The reaction was varied, and any observer could tell who knew what this truly meant, and those who had only the slightest comprehension of what the hell was goin on.  
  
"So it's true." Boromir said putting a finger thoughtfully to his lips. He acted like he had ants in his pants, or something, because he shifted around in his chair and stood up again to re-address the councils. But first, he did the oddest thing: he walked over to the little pedestal where the Ring lay in the center and made as if he were going to pick it up and whispered, "Isildur's Bane."  
  
Uruuva, tiny as it was, began to send out small glittering pulses from around my neck. I leapt from Aragorn's chair into the air and immediately began changing shape. My voice rang out, saying the exact same words as Gandalf, who was also now on his feet, our voices harsh and the sky dimming  
  
"Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi kripatul."  
  
I landed softly on my feet just as we finished reciting the nearly forgotten rhyme or whatever one could call it and the sky brightened. I straightened as my wings shrunk and disappeared, winked at Elrond who had his head in his hand (from me or the language I had just spoken in, I'm not sure) "One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." I spat at that imbecile of the Man.   
  
"Never before has any voice uttered any of that tongue here, in Imladris." I winked again at Elrond, who was speaking, and let Gandalf explain as I ignored the perturbed and worried looks I got form the council members, who then returned their attention to Gandalf, and went to sit down in my own seat to listen, and if necessary, interrupt the council.  
  
Boromir was sitting down once more after this new outburst and gave looks that combined dislike, fright and puzzlement all into one before he shook his head, like if he did that I would just go away, and got up, again. "It is a gift, a gift to the foes of Mordor! Why not use this Ring? Long has my father, the Steward of Gondor, kept the forces of Mordor at bay; by the blood of out people are your lands kept safe. Give Gondor the weapon of the Enemy, let us use It against him."  
  
"You cannot wield it." Aragorn beet me to talking before I could open my mouth, unable to let this fool yammer about what he did not know. "None of us can. The One Ring answers to Sauron alone; It has no other master"  
  
"And what would a Ranger know of this matter?" retorted Boromir.  
  
I smirked and got ready to shove his words back down his throat as I spoke as I stood up, "This is no mere Ranger. He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance."   
  
"Aragorn?" he said looking at Strider, who did not deny his identity. "This is Isildur's heir?" Aragorn only raised his head higher.  
  
"Aaannnnddd heir to the throne of Gondor. That parts just a teensy weensy bit important, too, ya know." I replied. Frodo, I noticed out of the corner of my eyes, was clearly shocked, to find out this grungy guy was King to a really big country.  
  
"Sit down, Dri." was all Aragorn told me in Elvish, slightly shaking his head to get the point that now was not the greatest time to pick a fight across.  
  
"Gondor has no King. Gondor needs no King." Bromir stated before finally sitting down.  
  
"Ooh, smart aren't we," I muttered as I sat back down. Gondor has no king, Gondor needs no King." I mocked under my breathe.  
  
"Aragorn is right. We cannot use it." Gandalf said, standing up. Jeez, what's with everyone thinking that in order to talk they gotta stand?  
  
"You have only one choice," Aught, Elrond was standing up too! He kept talking, unaware of my personal musings. "You must destroy it." Boromir got this little look on his face like some one told him the gym just got demolished.   
  
"Then what are we waiting for?" gruffly demanded Gimli as he hefted an axe and stepped over to the Ring, slamming the weapn down as hard as he could. There was a great flash, and for a moment a great eye was discernible to me. I glanced at Uruuva, who was shimmering just slightly. I looked at the other Ring, which was unharmed and surrounded by the broken bits of axe. Gimli was now on his back, thrown there by the rebound of his own force.  
  
"The Ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli, son of Gloin, by any craft we here possess; the Ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom, only there can It be unmade. It must be taken deep into Mordor and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. One of you must do this."  
  
'One does not simply walk into Mordor," said Boromir, the first besides Aragorn to speak from their chair. "Its Black Gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland riddled with fire and ash and dust; the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with even ten thousand men could you do this, it is folly."  
  
"Have you heard nothing Lord Elrond just said?" demanded Legolas as he stood up in anger. "The Ring must be destroyed!"  
  
"And I suppose you think you're the one to do it?!" asked the enraged Gimli, jumping to his feet.  
  
"And if you fail, what then? What happens when Sauron takes back what is his?" Boromir chimed in.  
  
"I will be dead before I see the Ring in the hands of an Elf.!" declared our red-aired dwarf. His statement made me want to laugh as every one started to jump up and argue, with only Legolas, Frodo, and Elrond, besides myself, showing any wish not to fight, because I don't think Gimli realized that had the Elves wanted the Ring, Elrond could have taken it many times, or if need be, had guards overpower Frodo, or even the council, seeing as how Rivendell IS an Elvish city.  
  
Finally, just when I was about to jump into the fray, Frodo yelled out, "I will take It! I will take It!" I winced, as did Gandalf. The poor Hobbit did not know that I was gonna ask Elrond if I could take It to Mordor, alone. I sighed, and every one turned towards this small creature who was alone in his distinctive courage to offer to go, not fight over who would not go." "I will take the Ring to Mordor! Though, I do not know the way." finished Frodo.   
  
"I will help you to bear this burden, Frodo Baggins, as long as it is yours to bear."  
  
I shrank back to Fairy Dri again and flew over to where Elrond was and landed on his shoulder, a nearly invisible speck of pure darkness against the bright colors of his clothes.   
  
Aragorn stood and announced, "If by my life or death I can protect you, I will." before walking over to Frodo, where he knelt so that he was in actuality shorter than the standing Frodo. "You have my sword."  
  
I noticed Gandalf wink in our direction, me and Elrond, and I only rolled my eyes, which was something I had noticed of late Elrond did quite well.  
  
"And you have my bow." added Legolas, coming over to stand with the new group.   
  
"Which will do no good if you gots no arrows! What is this?" I said out loud so that only Elrond would hear, "Some sign-up to get themselves killed?"  
  
"And MY axe!" the ever gruff dwarf Gimli declared.  
  
Legolas, I could see from my nice view, had this little disgruntled look that clearly meant, 'Oh, God, no. not the Dwarf... I'm gonna kill 'em' Which is exactly what I would have been thinking when I heard the next person to jump on board the bandwagon to Mordor.  
  
"You carry the Fate of us all, Little One. If this is indeed the will of the council, then Gondor will see it done." stated Boromir as he sort of walked, in a proper manly version of someone with no ability whatsoever in their knees, behind Gimli.  
  
Bushes twitch in the corner of my eye and the Hobbit Samwise Gamgee, or just Sam, exploded as fast as he possibly could into the council with this little "Haeey!" and scurried over next to Frodo, who was looking surprised at this newcomer, friend that he was. "Mister Frodo's not goin' anywhere without me." and crossed his arms deliberately over his chest.  
  
Elrond sighed and with a tint of exasperation in his voice said, "No indeed. It is hardly possible to separate the two of you, even when he is summoned to a secret council and you are not!" Which got grins all around, and made me start laughing so hard I fell off backwards and started hovering in little jerks of mirth around Elrond.  
  
"Oi! We're comin' too!" cried a new Hobbit, Merry, I think it was, as he and Pippin scurried up to the little dais where the council was.  
  
Elrond whirled around at the newest Hobbit intrusion and I started laughing harder, saying to myself, "Ack! The invasion of Midgets!! Run for your lives! The Midgets are coming!!"  
  
"You'll have to send us home tied up in a sack to stop us!' said Merry to the incredulous Frodo.  
  
"Any way," added Pippin, "you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission...quest...thing!"   
  
I gave a hilarious shriek as every one in the group besides Frodo started giving each other these little, "Intelligence? Him? You have GOT to be kidding!" looks and Gandalf was just standing there shaking his head in disbelief at the words coming out of Pippin's overlarge mouth.   
  
Merry whispered to the last Hobbit, "Well, that rules you out, Pip." To which Pippin, the cutie that he was, started to nod before he got the meaning to Merry's words and then looked slightly offended.  
  
"Nine companions... So be it! You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring!" proclaimed Elrond.  
  
'Right." answered Pip. "Where are we going?" 


	10. Teacher, Teacher!

most of my yammering is at the bottom, but real quick: I apologize for the last chapter, A) it royally stunk and B) ff.n spazzed and so sometimes its there and sometimes its not, and when it is its slightly messed up, like the title. is supposed to be "Lack of Intelligence" but I'm working on all that jazz. hey eat jaguars now.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
After I woke up, on October 24th, the exact same time as Frodo, I sat in my bed and thought for a very long time. Who knows how long it was, because I certainly do not. Then there was a soft knock on my door, gently dragging myself away from my thoughts.  
  
"Come in!" I called in a slightly scratchy from disuse but otherwise normal voice. Elrond emerged from behind the opening door, elegant and Lordly as usual. I nodded and used some flowery greeting that was so well used with the Elven people and asked, "What do I owe the pleasure of this visit to, Lord Elrond?"   
  
"The Lady Dri, though she would protest at the title. I have a few questions concerning that night you rode off with, or rather on her, and only returned with a near-deadly wound from the blade of a Ringwraith. I have spoken to Aragorn and, before she fell into a deep slumber form her efforts, Dri herself." was his stately reply.  
  
"I am afraid I remember little of what actually occurred to my own body, but I have been thinking about that since I awoke." I replied.  
  
"Well, by all means, Nicolas, tell me of your morning thoughts, and I will tell what I have been able to find out." I was told by Elrond's soothing and powerful voice.  
  
"Well, Sir, I suppose I had better start where we separated."  
  
"Beginnings are the easiest place to begin when one is trying to understand the whole."   
  
"Well, I rode on Dri's back until we were leagues away, probably around eight or nine. I was talking in some odd language and got off on this boulder when she finally stopped and we started talking, innocently, and then I kept trying to raise my eyebrow, but I couldn't, and then." I stopped talking suddenly, almost shocked by my own thoughts, unsure of what to say next.   
  
You see, I had just realized something, like a few pieces of the puzzle clicked. "How long has the Lady been here, in Rivendell?" I questioned suddenly, because one of those pieces was going to stay hidden for quite a while, now that I knew it; the other concerned more than just my emotions.  
  
Sensing that this had something to do with what I was previously talking about, Elrond replied. "Only a few days longer than yourself, but that is due to the fact that she was found within the realm of Rivendell, and was not in Bree, lost and confused as you were, Master Nicolas."   
  
"Did you often talk to her, in the time that we have been here?" I questioned further.  
  
"Unfortunately, yes. Most times it was to try and get her to behave or stay out of trouble, which she has, I might add, a wonderful knack for finding, whether she be here in Imladris or elsewhere, such as sneaking into the Shire. At other times she comes to me, wishing to know of the history of this world, especially the Elven kinds and their battles. Yet she also went many places and even I do not know where all she has been; it is a belief of mine that she may have even journeyed to the edges of Mordor and back again."  
  
I nodded thoughtfully, slowly devouring this new information and turning it over. "How does she change form?"   
  
"That is something I have mere guesses about, and for fear that they be incorrect guesses shall keep them to myself except for this one: it has something to do with her past. There are many puzzles to Dri, and she seems to prefer it that way, if only to frustrate those trying to solve the puzzle that is she." Elrond said slowly, walking about the room. "But I believe that we were discussing what happened to you, Nicolas, after you left Rivendell with Dri." added Elrond with a raised eyebrow, which served to remind me of Dri.  
  
"We were talking on a boulder, like I told you before."   
  
"What was your conversation about?"  
  
I scrunched my forehead in thought, trying to recall her exact words. "First she started yelling at me, saying I was going to blow up Rivendell with a spell or something, but I don't know why. I was just seeing what Frodo was seeing on Weathertop. I asked Dri what the date was and she got even angrier, if possible. It was October 6, and I knew what was going to happen to Frodo."  
  
"From the books you told me about, the ones that speak of Middle-earth as if it were a fictional place?" interrupted Elrond.  
  
"Well, yes. She sat there and threatened me and went on about how I was an idiot because I didn't know where we were, and she said that for all I knew she was taking me to Mordor. We talked about meaningless matters for a few minutes and she seemed to have calmed down. Then I started seeing everything through Frodo's eyes, like I was there inside his body. I could feel someone slugging my body's jaw, which hurt like hell. We, Frodo and me, put on the Ring, and the Eye of Sauron appeared like a backdrop behind the wraiths, who were trying to get the Ring. But instead they stabbed us, and then everything was colored with the pain that just would not go away. I could hear some one screaming in the language of my world to come back. Strider fought off the wraiths. Everything was kind of this great blur of color and sounds, things drifting in and out of focus. I heard this voice of an angel that seemed to echo majestically, but they were calling out in the Black Tongue of Mordor "Finder of the Lost, Keeper of the Light, One Battle In Heart." Frodo took off the Ring and I came back into my own body and turned to look for the angel, but all I could see was Dri. Then I fainted."  
  
I stayed quiet for a minute, thinking about what had happened next. "I awoke in a forest, for a few minutes only. It was dark and blurry out, with the only light coming from a fire Dri was cooking over. Then I started to fade back to Frodo's body, and I was being bounced around on Bill, their pony from Bree." Elrond gave me an odd look and I added hastily, "The books." and a look of comprehension came over his previously puzzled face.   
  
"Aragorn had Sam find Athelas and he used some on us, but I felt something cold on my real shoulder, like I was having tea bags put on my shoulder."  
  
"That would be because Dri came up with a rather effective but new method to treat certain types of injuries using Kingsfoil, and was putting moist packets of it on your wound, which existed on your own body." supplied Elrond.   
  
"I see. I woke up once, only to find this cougaress sitting there growling at me from the back of its throat. I panicked, and couldn't see any one there except me and the cougar and a dead fire pit full of ash. I started cussing, and was really worried. Then it had to put its paw on my head and I flipped, whipping out a knife like Elrohir had taught me and slashed at it. I noticed it had this silver necklace and ring just before I struck, and at the last minute held back just enough power to only scratch the neck and break the chain. With no warning the cougar jumped and pounced on my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. Then it turned into Dri and she took the knife from me and held it to my throat. Dri slapped me with her other hand so hard it stung and I looked at her, but she just started chewing me out again. The last thing I heard was "'Are you completely blind, or JUST RETARDED?'" before I went back to Frodo's view of things. After a while everything went black.  
  
When I came out of that blankness I kept drifting from what Frodo saw to what was really around my body, but mostly I saw at least a faded image of what was around Frodo at all times. I remember seeing this blurry, dark figure and fearing it was the wraiths I kept hearing around us, but it was not. Instead I heard that voice of an angel only now she was talking in the common tongue and repeated what she had told me before, Finder of the Lost, Keeper of the Light, One Battle In Heart. It helped with the pain and I sort of blacked out again.  
  
I remember seeing what happened when Arwen came, and I remember the days of hard riding, followed by the screams of the wraiths, and their horrendous speech as they demanded Arwen turn us over, and her valiant refusal. Then the River rose up against them, seemingly led by white horses. And then everything went this to white light, like what they say happens when you die. I remember screaming that it wasn't our time, and trying to fight harder, and then there was this chanting sound, in both of our ears. That's all I remember until I woke up." I finished and leaned my head back against the headboard of my bed.  
  
"It is as Dri told me, I am afraid. There is some bond between yourself and Master Frodo that cannot be broken by any known means. I have, however, discovered in my healings that you possess talent on the level of the Maia, such as Gandalf." Elrond said quietly.  
  
I lifted my head up so fast that the room seemed to spin for a moment and asked unbelievably, "What? Me, a wizard? Like Gandalf the Grey? HA! Right, Elrond, nice joke."   
  
"Unfortunately, this is no mere jest. I'll-"  
  
"Just have Mithrandir train me." I finished with an odd look on my face, which quickly passed to Elrond.  
  
"How did you know that I had already made such arrangements? Wait, no, it is as I have said: you have powers as great as the Maia." Elrond answered his own question.   
  
I gave him an odd look before I realized that it must have been the truth he was speaking. How else would I be able to have this weird sense of precognition or whatever it was? Hell if I know, so I just went along and got involved in this rather dull if informative discussion about my capabilities.   
  
The end results were:  
~ I might actually be a Maia-n, but unsure  
~ I might get to live forever, but not sure  
~ I do have limits, we just don't know what they are. Yet.  
~ I should give a thank you note to Dri, or apologize for slicing her necklace.  
~ I could get up, just later.  
~ Later would also be my first meeting with Gandalf, my new teacher.  
  
Eventually Elrond left me alone to get up and about, which was basically what I did after attending to certain needs, such as food. During this tome frame I also met the Bagginses, Merry, Pippin, and Sam. I heard them as I walked away wondering if I could change form, but left that to my meeting with Gandalf. Which would be later that evening at a banquet that the Elves seemed to be so fond of.   
  
Time seemed to drag on until I was almost sure it was going backwards. But after what seemed to be an eternity, I was finally called to a room where I first encountered Gandalf the Grey, wizard. He looked like an old man, yet one who was used to hard work and long hours. Not like a stick, but not like a blob, the man had a medium build that was layered with grey robes that appeared to have seen so many places that it would look out of place, were it to be clean. An then there was the slightly bent hat that was perched upon his knowledgeable head. Grey-blue eyes seemed to take in every aspect there was to be seen by the eye alone.  
  
I must have had my mouth open and staring with my eyes bugged out because the venerable wizard turns and tells me, "Master Nicolas! Well, met. Or it would be, if you were not staring in such a way that makes me feel like a bug under intense scrutiny before a bartender swats it away." A low laugh echoed from the wizard, and I shook my head in disbelief.  
  
"I am sorry, Master Gandalf, It's just I've always dreamed of actually meeting you, and now you're to teach me... I just sort of thought Elrond was playing a trick on me." I stumbled to reply.  
  
Gandalf looked at me before breaking into a smile. "Nonsense! Elrond has never joked about something of this magnitude, especially in these darkest of times! It's like the Elf was born with out a humorous bone in his body! Though I must say I thought that a friend of mine had influenced him more than usual when Elrond told me of your near-catastrophe a few days ago. Only one of great power can do the things you have the ability to do, Master Nicolas."  
  
"Please, Mister Gandalf, don't call me Master if you are to be my teacher." I countered.  
  
"Very well, but only if you just call me Gandalf." was his reply with a wink.  
  
"Now then, we shall have to perform some, ah, experiments to see how advanced your capabilities are."  
  
"Joy." I muttered to myself, "I get to be a lab rat to Gandalf the Grey, a most renowned wizard." Luckily for me, though, Gandalf has not the ears of the Elves, but of mortal Man and so did not hear my bit of sarcasm.  
  
That was mainly what we did for the remainder of the day, testing me to see what all I could or could not do. I could light fires with a thought, find hidden things if I knew what to look for, had a little abiliy to sense the future, and even sense some basic emotions if I tried. And, of course, I knew endless amounts of spells from other languages, but had not even the slightest inkling as to what the spells did. Gandalf told me to spend the next few weeks writing them down, and then he could start really teaching me what to do with my powers.  
  
  
  
So passed my weeks in October and up to November the tenth. I would spend hours scrawling down which ever spells were on the top of my mind, and take them to Gandalf so he could look over them. generally he would then go off in a lecture, much like a college professor, often about various things that dealt in the most peculiar ways with magic.   
  
Then on the tenth day of November, Gandalf told me of the Council that was to be held the next day. He said that since I was his apprentice of sorts that it would be fitting that I was there. I declined, and then reluctantly told Gandalf that I already knew what was to happen, that I couldn't risk changing the decision of the council.   
  
It was important to all the world that this council occur exactly as Tolkien wrote it, with as little outside influence as possible, and that was that.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
yes, that was an awefully short chp, but I didnt like writing from Nic' Pov, but had to to keep you all up on whats happened to him. This is mainly dri's story.. And yes, I know she's a bitch, i like her that way, but there will be an explanation for her bitchiness, especially towards guys, if you haven't already figured out why. and, now that i think abou it, i might change the title, but only after giving a decent warning. something like dri's tale, maybe. or if you no lokkes, tell me a better one. just hit the lovely button. and sorry nahe, i just had to update. 


	11. Oh Shit Aki Mushrooms

.  
Hey!! I just realized that I haven't given any declaimers! well, for the rest of the story, if you recognize it, I don't own it *sigh*. However, I have all rights to Nick, Kara, Alex, (blah, blah any one else) and Dri , as she is sorta my extra violent alter ego, of which I have several. So, if you really feel like being ripped to smithereens by a pissed off Dri, go right ahead, use her without permission. I am not responsible for any injuries you sustain in the process. And that, folks, is my only disclaimer, except for one concerning a song that will show up soon, maybe in this chap, pends on what dri does.....  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Yes, I am!"  
  
"I cannot allow-"  
  
"Bullshit! I am going, with or without you guys's permission!"  
  
"Oh, no you're not!"  
  
"How the hell you gonna stop me, huh?"  
  
"I will spell you, if need be."  
  
"Get out, Gandalf. You know I can help, seeing as how I was in Mordor last year. I can help you when I change form, spy, that sorta stuff. Sides, you'd only spell one part of me, I can change and the spell's broken, remember???"  
  
"I shall lock you in the dungeons, then."   
  
"Umm, hello?? I can just make myself a little bug or sumthin and get out. No Elf can stop me, or no wizard. Sides, I wanna kick Sauron's ass. We have a score to settle."  
  
"What score do you speak off, Dri?"  
  
"None of your damn business, Elrond!" I was quite angry by now, as Gandalf, Elrond, and I had been arguing for at least an hour. It was me versus them, and I was stubbornly insisting that I be allowed to join the Fellowship, as the nine travelers were now called.  
  
Gandalf sighed, fed up with my persistent whining intermixed with demanding. "A compromise, then, Dri."  
  
His words made me stiffen in disgust; I despise that word, compromise, and Gandalf knew it.  
  
"If you are allowed to come, then it is also to be decided when you cause too much trouble and draw attention to the fellowship. There will be no quarrels over you, with you, or against you. Anything I say, you will follow without question." declared the timeless wizard. "And you will not change shape just to fight your fellow travelers."  
  
"Umm, how bout this, old men: I go. No if, ands or coconuts about it." Both Elrond and Gandalf gave me this look that said I was crazy. "Yes, I am insane, no you can't use that as an excuse to keep me in Rivendell. I won't change to attack unless provoked, I getta bitch people out if they are moronic enough to make that necessary, I'll try to follow the pertainable rules of Elrond's, you know minus the whole dress junk. On top of all that, I'll get the Ringbearer to Mordor. How's that for a compromise?" I ended my bargaining with my hands on my hips, glaring at Elrond and the wizened Gandalf, who were both staring at me with astonishment that not even the Elves could hide. I merely grinned and defiantly stated, "So, your answer would be???"  
  
"You realize that what you are doing is called blackmail, do you not, Lady Kadrianna Huinemeoi?" questioned Gandalf with a grin.  
  
"If it let's me go, then yes, I do."   
  
"I will not ask that you take the Ringbearer to Mordor, only that you aid his path in all that you can."  
  
"That works for me."  
  
"Then I allow you to travel with the Fellowship for as long as you deem necessary and right, for I do not wish for the sacrifice of Karalin Ithonun to be in vain. It is clear that your path merges with that of Frodo Baggins and his burden because of Lady Karalin's act-"  
  
Elrond got cut off when I, in a rare display of emotions, nearly squeezed the ethereal life outta him before I repeated the process to a very surprised Mithrandir.  
  
I stepped back and flashed one of my wide grins and rubbing my hands together with giddy anticipation said rather cheerfully, "So, boys, when do we getta leave? Tomorrow?"  
  
!*!*!*!*!  
  
You can imagine my disappointment when I learned we had ta wait till Elrond's spies and scouts came back with information on what Sauron and the ugly Men In Black (IX) as I called the wraiths.   
  
In the meantime I spent many long hours deep in conversation with Arwen, as she was the only friend I could find with any regularity. Gandalf had mentioned a new pupil, but I had no interest in making any new and annoying acquaintances so I didn't ask about it. Yurin and Elrond's sons had been sent out as scouts.   
  
I basically ignored the other members of the fellowship except for the Hobbits, which were often conversing with Bilbo or asking questions of the Elves like there's no tomorrow. Occasionally I would change into odd things to amuse them, and gradually they accepted me and the fact that I would be coming with them. In fact, I think that Sam was actually relieved I would be coming, which surprised me a little. But then something he said made me realize that he was worried about being around the Big People.   
  
"Are you sure there's no Hobbit blood in you, Dri?" he asked.  
  
I laughed and said, "No, Sam, I'm sure there's not a drop of midget in me."   
  
I had once explained to the four Hobbits what a midget was, but they took no offense, only replied, "But then there's less room for an ego, Miss Dri." replied Merry.   
  
All that made me realize that my being short was a comfort, even if I did have odd things, like body piercing and the occasional tattoo. And I could shift. And I knew any language they spoke; even if they made it up I could tell the meaning.  
  
I also showed them my wall of weapons, and gave each one a 'Lady's Knife' as some one had once called them. The whole thing, sheath and all was at most four inches, hardly longer than my fingers. The sheath and hilt were wrapped with dark leather strips, and the sheath was tied on a matching leather thong that went around their necks like a necklace. If attacked without anything else they could yank the blade, which hung hilt down, extend an arm and imbed the dagger in the thigh area of their attacker and run like hell.  
  
If the pain didn't stop them, the attacker of the Hobbits would be dead within two weeks. Mother Nature sure as hell knew how to combine with metal and cause blood poisoning, and I had learned her trick. You take the blade and stick it in the cloves of a garlic and leave the whole thing in a cold place, a fridge if you weren't in Middle Earth, for forty-eight hours. Then, without cleaning the blade at all, you resheath it. The acid in the garlic leaves behind a certain substance that causes full blown blood poisoning two weeks after entering the blood. Very nice, especially for small, little people with next to no fighting experience.  
  
Somehow the Hobbits had wormed their way into that tiny circle of people I would be more than glad to give anything to see them happy, even if it cost me my life. I think I was jealous, jealous of their carefree spirit, their assurance that this would be a walk in the park and then they'd be back in time for tea. Envious of the lack of sorrow in their eyes and on their hearts, yet eternally grateful to the traitorous gods that it was so.   
  
My sorrow is still carried deep in the place where I half deny these feelings. It scares me, to think that they were close enough that the absence of Gandalf, Yurin, Arwen, Frodo, Pippin, and the others would send me spiraling back into the clutches of darkness; I don't think I could stay in one piece under the extra weight.  
  
Still, the day when we were to leave Rivendell was finally announced and I could not help but laugh. It was December twenty-fifth, and the day after my twenty first birthday, if you ignored the fact that there was a difference in the American calendar and that of the Shire. I was born so late at night, Alex once told me, he thought I was going to steal Jesus' birthday, too. I laugh now, and wonder if there ever was a Jesus before I flutter the thought away.  
  
I spent most of the night saying a final goodbye to my friends, and gave a key to Yurin and told him if I wasn't back or he had heard I would not be back, he was to move my bed, pry up the board that had the Elf runes for S and C. There he would find a box, and a letter addressed to him on top of it. The letter would explain everything. "Only if I'm not back in exactly one year, or you hear I fell in battle." I warned him, "Or you will experience pain beyond anything you have ever endured in a millennia."  
  
In the box were letters, hundreds of words and several bottles worth of conversations for my friends when I was gone. There was a general explanation of my life in the other world, and, if I could not tell him, a letter explaining Kara's life to Legolas. I remember the fact from Kara's readings that he was to live because she was always so genuinely relieved. I guess I know why. There was also a will of sorts, divvying up the few possessions that I had to leave behind. Like the jewelry dejected suitors gave, along with a few unopened boxes from forgotten followers. Or at least, they were suitors and followers before I threw them through windows.  
  
Me, I had to wonder why there was never any mention of a girl in the Fellowship. I thought it odd that they could go a year with just guys for company. My conclusions are A) the girl died near the beginning and was so unworthy of any notice, B) she did something so evil it was beyond mentioning or C) It's all a dream that I have yet to wake up. The last one was just an idea that I knew to be wrong but I clung to desperately because if this was a dream, then could not the deaths of Alex and Kara just have been nightmares? But late at night I knew I was just lying to myself, giving false hope when there was only one source of such a thing: my revenge.  
  
I spent the night triple and quadruple checking all my stuff. My swords, special sheaths, archery gear, wrist guards, belt, long knives, daggers, fighting knifes, throwing stars, poisonous powders, Sleepy Pixie Sticks, Lorien cloak, medical needle and thread, flint stone, Gandalf's bespelled pot, rope, pack, bed roll, munchies, and a few coins for any necessary bribing. Brush, soap and the like. Urruva Mornie. Extra string for shoelaces if necessary. Handkerchiefs, powder packets for things like Athelas, a wooden plate and dinnerware, cantine. The list was near endless yet it all fit perfectly and all together the weight was not enough to make me leave anything behind.  
  
Finally I fell into my bed for the last time in an incredible long time and slept until dawn. I woke and ate a few apples that I had laid out the previous night. I dressed and pulled on all my gear before throwing my cloak around my shoulders. Grinning, I turned into an Elf that bore strong resemblance to myself, but looked slightly like Arwen. A female Elf would have less trouble being accepted than a short woman. Sides, I wanted ta see how high Aragorn could jump.  
  
I was in the predesignated courtyard well before the others and watched them trickle in, along with the rest of Elrond court. Arwen stood off to a side dressed in what looked like a purple kimono with a few other Elves around her, so I drew up my hood to prevent anyone from seeing my face. I noticed that she was breathing strangely, like she was upset. Then I looked at Aragorn, who was looking like whipped puppy with sorrow in his eyes, though he hid it so well I had to wonder if even Arwen noticed.  
  
The Hobbits were in a clump conversing happily in front of me, so I listened to their chit chat as I looked around. Legolas and Gimli were nearly at opposite ends of the strung out Fellowship, with Boromir near the Dwarf and Gandalf near the Elf. I peered intently at the wizard and Elf pair, because Legolas kept looked at the right of Gandalf, as did Gandalf himself, like they were talking to someone. I started to shrink to go over and investigate, but the sudden change in size won me a glare from Elrond so I returned to Elf.  
  
Finally, it was announced and the main Fellowship left, with me a good two yards behind the end as I followed the lead of Frodo, or Gandalf who was guiding. We were off to destroy the impending doom of Sauron. Happy, happy, joy, joy.  
  
**********N*I*C*S*P*O*V*******  
  
I stood in the courtyard next to Gandalf and Legolas, with whom I was talking.  
  
"So you are Gandalf's apprentice who is coming along?' inquired the Elven prince.  
  
Despite the invisibility spell I was under, I bowed and acknowledged Gandalf to be my teacher. "It is under his instruction I practice this particular spell."  
  
"So you can slip out unnoticed by that Elf in the black?" my questioner asked politely.  
  
"Actually, my dear prince Legolas, that is no Elf. But that person in the cloak is, as rumors stated, coming with the Fellowship. They will reveal themselves in due time, like my apprentice. Once, of course, we are a suitable distance from Rivendell." supplied Gandalf.   
  
Then Elrond gave a small speech on how there was no oath making us stay, and we could leave when we wished. Me? I was raring to go, and couldn't have been happier when we were finally outside of Rivendell. That's when it hit me: I was in Middle Earth and now embarking on this twenty-fifth of December on a journey that would survive and be written down in my world, as well as being known to all in this world.  
  
I took a deep breath of fresh air and started to hum, to my surprise, Christmas songs. I was nearing the end of "Jingle Bells" when I heard a feminine voice singing ever so softly, like a memory carried on the wind. Only it was actually reality, because the rest of the Fellowship turned around and began to stare at the figure cloaked in entirely in black. My mouth dropped open at hearing the words, first in Elvish and then, in languages of all languages, English.  
  
"Where are you Christmas Why can't I find you Why have you gone away Where is the laughter You used to bring me Why can't I hear music play My world is changing I'm rearranging Does that mean Christmas changes too Where are you Christmas Do you remember The one you used to know I'm not the same one See what the time's done Is that why you have let me go Christmas is here Everywhere, oh Christmas is here If you care, oh If there is love in your heart and your mind You will feel like Christmas all the time I feel you Christmas I know I've found you You never fade away The joy of Christmas Stays here inside us Fills each and every heart with love Where are you Christmas Fills your heart with love"**  
  
I turned around as the person stood facing the upcoming mountains and sung, her hood slowly being blown back as if in slow motion and there was, without a doubt, Dri as she would have been if she were an Elf.  
  
Unfortunately, just as she finished, the spell that kept me invisible and I flickered back into view as my muttered derisively, "Oh. Shit. Aki Mushrooms."  
  
Dri's previously face clouded over with beautiful anger that was focused on myself and Gandalf besides me.   
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
okay. Just wanna clear somethings up about this chap:  
1. only Dri and Nic speak English, and generally are when talking to each other unless specified. they talk in common with the others  
2. Yes, Christmas does not exist in ME. But, nic and Dri know when it is and as they leave on Dec. 25, it is Chrisytmas,. hence the whole song thing.  
  
Unless I get any objections, I'm gonna change the title to "The Shadowcat Chronicles" at my next update. cool title huh?  
** yes, that is the song I was talkin about. It is NOT MINE!!!! THe grinch owns it! it is "Where are you Christmas?" recorded by Faith Hill on Interscope Records, words and Music by James Horner, Will Jennings, and Mariah Carey from the Movie Dr. Seuss' "How The Grinch Stole Christmas"so no suing, comprende? 


End file.
